Cobb

Man on Fire

Can you kill the man who tried to kill you? Yes or No? If he is part of an organization, should you kill the organizers? If you could, would you?

It's very difficult to talk about Denzel Washington's latest film without also talking about Abu Ghraib and bunch of other stuff. As much as I want to keep the subjects apart, I cannot manage it. I am at the point at which I am wanting to make the film a litmus test for sense and sensibility over the question of Iraq, but in a deeper way. However instead of stringing this character study together with what I've been talking about in 'Monsters on a Leash', let it stand as a metaphor for the man who does democracy's dirty work and sacrifice. Denzel Washington has given us a performance for the ages which resonates in many directions.

Here's what I'm getting at. I am trying to break through a kind of social phlegm which I believe to be a self-imposed exile. It is part and parcel of my antagonism to that which I describe as 'dainty'. If I were to call it 'liberal' then it would score me points with my conservative brethren but that's not my aim. Rather I am trying to reveal a kind of denial which will get us in deeper trouble. In the context of Man on Fire, it is the denial that there is a necessary good in the dealing with evil in the harshest ways. I am trying to break through the denial that says there are no noble ends worthy of extreme prejudice.

If the Geneva Conventioneers go to the movies, they would certainly have to give a huge failing grade to the Man on Fire. However I don't think they would convince many Americans that this is not an extraordinarily moving film. But let me qualify that one more step. A moving film in the genre of action is what I'm talking about, and I realize that many Americans don't go to the theater in order to see action films. I don't quite know what to make of such Americans because the great advantage of going to such events is the technology of emergence possible with the large screen and the booming system. Unless you are one of the types who are unimaginative enough to consider 'Sleepless in Seattle' a good reason to date... excuse me, my demographic is showing. 15 years ago, I'd go for a Tarkofsky at the Nuart, these days I go for a Scott at the Bridge. As for Amelie, she waits for pay per view. What I expect from an action film goes beyond the boom to the character in focus, the hero. What is his code?

From the very opening credits, I was stunned at the brilliance of director Tony Scott's sensibilities with light and film. I have been watching a great deal of digital entertainment recently: digital shorts, gaming and game cut scenes. Scott's ability with film expresses a much larger visual vocabulary, and his facility with it is often breathtaking. It is an accelerated communication I am witnessing, the visual equivalent of New Yawkese at a rapid clip. Not since Soderbergh's 'Traffic' has this kind of film been made, and yet where Traffic is an investigation into a series of characters and tragedies, 'Man on Fire' comes down to one. What does it take to unravel the kind of organization that sanctions terror and extortion? What happens when a man who can, does with trained lethality?

Keeping It Right

Now is the time for all good African American bloggers on my side of the fence, to come to the aid of themselves. I'm feeling blackified today, and this happens from time to time. It's not what I'm all about but it goes pretty deep. So this is an open letter to my bretheren. Let's league up.

Most of us know of each other's blogs. We often end up on the same blogrolls. But I think we should come up with a logo and reserve a place. Nothing's mutually exclusive of course, I'm a proud Bear Flagger. That's not going anywhere.

A year or so ago, I opened up a website called OldSchoolRepublicans.net. It died and became VisionCircle, which could also use a little traffic. But while Vision Circle is still hopping along on one leg, it's needs its own evolution and it would be too egocentric of me to suggest we all do something there. I am not opposed at all to doing a joint group blog. I like 'Niagra Two' but I think a Leauge and a logo would be the easiest thing to do right now.

Me myself, I get tired of black socialists. Not because I hate them, but I just think they are wrong on many critical issues and I'm tired of hearing them repeat themselves. I think the black right needs to be heard a bit more clearly and I know we need to understand and differentiate ourselves. Some of us are Christian Conservatives, some of us are Moderate Republicans, some of us are Libertarian, some of us are Independents who can't stand Jesse & Al. Some of us are even Democrats just waiting for an excuse to go in a new direction. All of us are in various stages of political maturity and sophistication. But we're all politically divorced from the Left. It's not that don't have any love left, we just can't live under the same roof any longer.

So.

Baldilocks? Thornton? Barber? Tooley? Shay? Black Right are you with me?
(oh yeah, we got it right and ain't goin' nowhere!)

CIA Rules!

..And the Horse You Rode In On

The defenders of perfect meritocracy are whinging again. This time, it's Harold Ford they want to take down a peg.

I guess that people don't understand black power. It's clear that they don't respect it, and that's perfectly understandable. There is plenty of company in the crowd of whitefolks who assert (with grating frequency and volume) that everyone should go to the same schools and take the same tests and follow the same paths of rightousness as their long suffering immigrant parents. We've heard that one before. There will always be somebody white saying that blacks don't deserve what they get. So long as they continue this bleating and drop the words 'affirmative action' somewhere in their complaint, the American mainstream seems not to mind terribly.

I mind.

It was none other than Chris Rock who said the rule of American success is that only white people can profit from pain. If you are black, you have to be good, and whatever you do has to be positive and uplifting. If you profit from pain and are discovered, not only does your ass get kicked, your black ass gets kicked. There is a difference between an ass kicking and a black ass kicking, because a black ass kicking serves as a public service announcement. That is to say it is terroristic.

Today, Donald Rumsfeld is on the verge of an ass kicking. I think Cambone, one of his underlings, will get the ass kicking. But it won't be a black ass kicking. It won't call into question the judgement of the individuals who got him to his position. It won't tar the institution. Those things happen only when the black man screws up.

Q: Who let you in here, nigger?

A: Affirmative Action, sir.

Q: If you screw up, it's your ass!

A: I only expect that I be treated the same as anyone else.

Q: HA! You don't get that kind of equality boy.

A: Why not?

Q: The boy don't understand why not. Because, dumbass, you got here on Affirmative Action.

A: So?

Q: So!? Do I have to explain everything? Affirmative Action makes you a second-class citizen. Don't you know that boy? It ain't the color of your skin, you see. It's your participation in the corrupt racist system.

A: It wasn't corrupt and racist before Affirmative Action?

Q: Shutup and be glad you're here. I ask the questions.

In order to perpetuate the myth that Affirmative Action is a corrupt, racist influence on society, one must assert that the remedy is worse than the cure. It's not surprising that people arrive at such a twisted conclusion. It's precisely the same kind of logic that opposes the war and occupation of Iraq. Now that Saddam Hussein is gone (now that the Civil Rights Act is passed), all the people who agitated for it need to go home and leave us alone. But enough with the analogies.

The racial resentment attending the presence of Uppity Negroes is nothing new. Whatever their life experience, it will continue to be the benefit of Affirmative Action which will take the credit or blame for their success as soon as their beneficiary status can be proven. But the very fact and presence of Affirmative Action exists because it is a vote, it is a powerful force in society that everyone in society does not get, nor participate in. In that way it is like a religious scholarship. Its intent is to give someone a leg up, to boost them higher than they would get otherwise. It's a different breed of horse.

Tony Randall

Tony Randall, out of all the actors and public figures I can think of, was the most refined. He was sophisticated without being pretentious. He was graceful without being wishy-washy. He has a wonderful facility with the language and a supple wit. He was stylish and cosmopolitan. A very classy gent. He will be missed.

Monsters On A Leash

Seymour Hersch lobs a certain accusation at the US this weekend that a lot of people are paying exceptional attention. In this is his final closing bomb.

“In an odd way,” Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said, “the sexual abuses at Abu Ghraib have become a diversion for the prisoner abuse and the violation of the Geneva Conventions that is authorized.” Since September 11th, Roth added, the military has systematically used third-degree techniques around the world on detainees. “Some jags hate this and are horrified that the tolerance of mistreatment will come back and haunt us in the next war,” Roth told me. “We’re giving the world a ready-made excuse to ignore the Geneva Conventions. Rumsfeld has lowered the bar.”

First, let me point out the obvious which is that the defense of the nation requires no international sanction. While it is quite possible that the Geneva Conventions have hit upon a universal standard of behavior which has been and always will be broadly acceptable, the chances are more likely that it could use a review in light of the kinds of conflict with which we are engaged. It is just as likely that our Armed Forces may be completely unsuitable for this kind of conflict. Again, both were conceived with the kind of national defense required for a clash of modern nations. I am willing to stipulate both require update in terms of their dealing with the cellular nature of distributed guerilla terrorism.

The 'bar' is not 'lowered'. It is illusory. It is a bourgie convention designed to make citizens of liberal democracies sleep better with the idea that gallantry is the order of modern warfare.

With regard to the humanitarian treatment of prisoners of war, the Geneva Conventions are presumeably that thing which separates us from the savages. Or more appropriately, the Conventions separate the civilized warring nations from the rogue states. I think it is beyond question with regard to the perfidity of the jihadist irregulars that we are dealing with rogues. But we're all capable of savagery. In that regard, there is no difference between 'us' and 'them'. We all retain the essence of our humanity which allows us to kill at all. No one suggests that we not kill the enemy. The difference lies in what our systems are constructed to do and how they perform when called into duty. The difference lies in the quality of the cage in which our monsters reside during the off season. The difference lies in the willingness to look, to see, to judge and to act when monstrous subjects are at hand. These are not differences made real by the existence of a Geneva Convention, but differences made real by the structure and behavior of the US military and its civilian oversight. The Army is built with a purpose in mind, it is to defend us as a nation from our enemies. When orders flow from generals to lieutenants to grunts, it is our own military code which establishs boundaries within which professionals operate for the satisfaction of the citizenry. When there are honors and medals and certificates of merit to be handed out, then accredited professionals can parade past the reviewing stand in front of the gathered cameras. But this does not define the whole of our military capability.

I am perfectly willing to go out on a limb for the sake of argument and suggest that what is being done in the name of America in the spaces of Abu Ghraib are exactly what went on under Saddam Hussein. I know that is not the case, as do most reasonable people. But even if it were the case, there remains something we have that our enemy does not which gives us the moral high ground. Our monsters are on a short leash. There are few of them and their operation is limited to a short period of time.

So understand what I am saying. I'm not saying that we are worse or better because of who Americans are and who Arabs are or what our cultures sustain. For the sake of argument, in this conflict we have put our monsters out against their monsters. And there needn't be made any argument about whose monsters are worse. That leash on our monsters is not the Geneva Convention, it is the American system, the American press, the American courts, the American people.

Anyone suffering under the delusion that we wouldn't and couldn't have torturers and assassins working somewhere on our side is incompetent to judge. If we need to give this power a proxy then let us name Cambone. Let those nameable be fodder for our political satisfaction, but the capacity will never be dismantled so long as humans war. It cannot as it is inherent in the nature of humans. We fight, and sometimes we fight dirty. But dirty fighting is not what we are all about, what this war is about, nor what the occupation is about. If GWBush loses the next election, it both confirms the fact that we bourgie civilians are in control and that our monsters are under our jurisdiction.

Our monsters are, by definition, cruel and unusual. Rumsfeld approved 200. We know. They are back in the bottle. Don't be surprised.

I grew up in the shadow of the nuclear bomb. When I was an adolescent, Planet of the Apes was my nightmare. Charlton Heston crying at the destroyed Statue of Liberty defined despair. So I, and many like me are conditioned to terms of defeat and resignation which are orders of magnitude more monstrous than what we bear witness to today in Iraq. In a war and occupation where our troops suffer less than one thousand deaths, we suffer the death of a thousand bleating cuts at the hands of those for whom sneering disgust is their only public expression. It's naive, cowardly and dishonest and I am weary of it.

Negro Digest Covers IX

Torture American Style

I continue to believe that Abu Ghraib was not as much of an outrage or an aberration as people make it out to be. This can be illustrated through via references to popular American entertainment whose subtext is humiliation and torture.

Consider the following from The Princess Bride, as said by the hero to the villian.

Wesley: "To the pain" means the first thing you lose will be your feet below the ankles. Then your hands at the wrists, next your nose.

Humperdink: And then my tongue, I suppose, I killed you too quickly the last time, a mistake I don't mean to duplicate tonight.

Wesley: I wasn't finished! The next thing you lose will be your left eye, followed by your right.

Humperdink: And then my ears, I understand! Let's get on with it!

Wesley: WRONG! Your ears you keep and I'll tell you why. So that every shreik of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish. Every babe that weeps at your approach, every woman who cries out "dear God, what is that thing?" will echo in your perfect ears. That is what "the pain" means. It means I leave you in anguish. Wallowing in freakish misery forever.

Raphael Maldonado, Vinnell and AQ

A fascinating theory. Bodyguards to the Royal Saudi Family were in on the AQ bombing.

The bombing on 12 May 2003 was implemented with precision based on meticulous intelligence. Lt-Col Raphael Maldonado, then a Vinnell instructor, claims al-Qa'ida received inside assistance from National Guard members. "This compound was too big and complex to be bombed without inside help", he said. He points to the discovery of a detailed map in the car left behind by the assailants and an improvised ladder consisting of concrete blocks and the trace of shoe markings made by people rushing to escape just before the explosion.

Segue

Schicklgruber

Jets

About an hour ago, military jets flew over Redondo Beach. I heard it from in the house, but then of course by the time I got outside they were gone. My neighbors across the street said they headed from East to West. About 15 minutes later I heard them again.

What gives?

UPDATE: Armed Forces Day Parade in Torrance. Shucks, I missed it. This time I saw a couple F18s flyby at five after 2pm.

Simon of Cyrene: Black African?

I must confess that I've forgotten my Stations of the Cross. Of all the Masses in the Catholic calendar, the Stations of the Cross were the most painful. Surely there must have been some time when I was twiddling my thumbs in mass as we all sang..

At the cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful mother weeping,
close to Jesus at the last,
Through her soul, of joy bereavèd,
bowed with anguish, deeply grievèd,
now at length the sword hath passed.

It has been so long since I've been at such a Mass that I am forgetting the melody. The one in my head doesn't quite match the meter of these lyrics and I wish I knew some dutiful Catholic so I could hum this song in my head and know the words which belong.

On my mind have been thoughts relating to integration, 'separate but equal' and affirmative action. So in reflection of Gibson's 'Passion', I wondered what kind of reaction others might have given to seeing a white Simon. Most blackfolks I know who commented on the film found this to be the most(!) troubling aspect of it. I haven't really thought about this controversy much until this morning.

We all know that American Christianity has been whitewashed, just like everything else. The recovery process for the correction of history is complete for the most part as regards what can be made politically significant vis a vis 'The Struggle'. But there are figures, like Simon, who are not so easily politicized. In many ways it doesn't matter if Simon of Cyrene could be considered visually black, unless of course it was true.

It is a truth we are not likely to determine with any accuracy, but as a black Catholic (of sorts), it was a matter of pride and honor in the 70s to assert his black face. It has become something of a tradition in American contemporary culture to depict Simon as black, much the way McDonald's commercials make their appropriate obeisance to the presence and power of black America. It has the appeal of our principles of equality, and it's offensive not to. Despite this realistic although sometimes gratuitous and annoying convention, it's decorous and proper but it's not absolutely necessary. On the matter of Christian Saints, however, I'd say that it is necessary to get it right even if by some dogmatic fiat.

To the extent that we know fact about Cyrene was where Libya is, there is clearly some ethnic heritage of the place which is likely berber, arab and other Northern African. No quick check of the web gives anything definitive. But I'll be checking the Bernal-Lefkowitz debate and see if I come up with something.

Busted

A Little Bit of Thurgood

Volokh puts a little bit of history on my mind. And so I decided to go look around to hear his oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the Brown case.

• NPR on Marshall's retirement. (Audio)
• Juan Williams on Thurgood Marshall (Audio)
• Seditionists' History.
• Oral Arguments by Marshall in Brown

Thurgood Marshall was a prankster at Lincoln University. There's an old story that he got a cow into the presidents office and fed it a laxative. I didn't know that. But from Juan Williams' story about the beginning Marshall's political consciousness, you get a feeling about his greatness.

Passion of the Berg

Uncensored Nick Berg Beheading Video!!!

I'm doing it purposefully by putting 'Nick Berg' in the caption, but on the whole I'm a bit disgusted with the link whoring going on.

The blogosphere is what it is, and little about the latest turn of events is changing what we are collectively. Most of us got our start blogging about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq anyway, but what we have become is much more than that. The blogosphere is a realization of what many of us computer folks have been wanting since the days of Fidonet: a way to connect intelligent people with things to say that aren't dumbed down by television, or exploited for dollars by universities. So I think it is inevitable that whatever interesting events go on in the world, there will be fascinating commentary to be found here. Commentary is one thing, hosting this video is something else.

It was none other than Prince who said of today's foul-mouthed rap stars, you eventually get the audience you deserve. So when some bloggers start complaining about the idiot comments they start getting, perhaps they'll look back at this moment with regret. I said before and I say again don't look at the video. It's repulsive and disgusting, and it doesn't tell us anything about jihadists that we didn't already know. Although I'm certain many have been shocked out of complacency by its gut wrenching qualities, it doesn't inform, it enflames.

Like every writer on the net, I am tempted to take advantage of whatever is popular and interesting even when I think it has been talked to death. All that goes into the Obligatory Seriousness Department. But I refuse to host this propaganda. People who need to see it can see it where they can, there's always someone to accomodate appetites. But I can't do that in good conscience and I really think bloggers are doing themselves a disservice by making hay of its publication.

I don't believe that anyone who watched 'The Passion of the Christ' by Mel Gibson, learned more about what Christianity is all about. Despite the huge spash it made worldwide, the film wasn't made of the stuff that changes minds. People who realize that should also realize that the Nick Berg video is not where to go to become informed about what we're involved in overseas. The same is the case for the Abu Ghraib pictures and the Rodney King video. What you really need to know is behind the scenes.

I have every expectation that the blogosphere will redeem itself from this grisly diversion. It remains primarily a written medium, and good writing will out. So I call on all bloggers with the good sense to call Gibson as a sensational propagandist to make the same call on the filmers of Nick Berg's tragic execution. Don't Host It.

Porno

HUMINT

Laker Flag Time

Now is the time that the Laker Flags are coming out. I'm starting to see them on cars here and there.

You could fill a hot air balloon with the breath I expel talking about politics, but you'd be hard pressed to get a birthday balloon out of me when it comes to sports. A lot of that is because I'm from Southern California where we do sports, not just talk about them. It's not like I'm from Cleveland or someplace where fat guys eat pizzas in bars while watching the games... We have chicks in our sports bars. Anyway, enough with the stereotypes. Lakers Rule!

As a fair weather sports fan, I take a great deal of pride in the way that folks from other towns just hate the Lakers. I like the way they hated the Raiders too. If we could only get people to care enough about the Dodgers, things could be great again. I was one of the folks who wished fervently that Dennis Rodman could have worked it out with Phil. Phil is the only coach who could handle Dennis. But also because Rodman would have given the Lakers enough weirdness to turn ordinary hate into something extraordinary. This all makes for a city which is even more difficult to pigeonhole, and anything that breaks up myths about Los Angeles is all good with me.

Watch And Learn

I am coming around to the realization that my field of software is an Oldsmobile. Part of this realization has to do with the grid computing infrastructure I mentioned last month. Part of it has to do with the insanity of VB.NET which I am trying to digest. (more on that later). A good fraction of it relies on my absolute ignorance and fascination with the tools, techniques and outputs of the CG trade (Do check out Rockfish). But a lot of it has to do with watching my own kids and monitoring their expectations.

As Stowe Boyd points out, kids don't care about snail mail. And one of these days, the tools of this trade are going to be a lot more sophisticated.

Yesterday, as I returned Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow & Red Dead Revolver to the local Blockbuster, I tried to conceptualize a new set of visualization tools for Enterprise computing. When it comes to graphical interfaces, we are so very retarded in terms of the way we conceptualize the functioning of our businesses. Even the simplest videogame is worlds ahead of what most businesses use. The number of execs I have talked to who would pay an arm and a leg for stoplight charts and dashboard dials are legion. But no gamer over the age of 7 would settle for the lack of realtime, or subtlety in corporate accounting systems. As I staff up at Metro Decisions, I'm only going to take gamers. I decided that a month ago.

A pal in NZ is starting up a company which appears to have broken through the OLAP barrier. It was bound to happen. Now that reality is at our doorstep, the next phase really has to kick in. And we will not sell it to the current crop of businessmen, but to the next generation which is happening now.

I have watched the industry for a long time, and they squander resources. They make excuses the same way they make work. Young minds and egos have no time for such ossification.

I argued with F9 yesterday. She says as a general principle the movie is better than the book. The subject was L'Engel's 'A Wrinkle in Time' and I wouldn't concede the point. But perhaps I should. What's in books that can't be digitized? It's always that the book covers things the movie does not. But we do have ways to visually and auditorially master the third person omnicient, and the craft will advance from here. What's expensive about shooting film in the current format can be overcome by videogame narrative. Kids do spend 100 hours in single games. I know.

There's a great potential awaiting the right team of programmers. You may not have heard it here first, but this blog is to remind me of certain things as well.

Acceptance

Black or African?

MT at the Crossroads

Movable Type announced the availability and pricing of their newest edition, MT version 3. I say HA!.

The fact of the matter is that 100 bucks isn't much to ask considering what you get. On the other hand, there isn't really anything wrong with the version I have except for its vulnerability to spam. But now that I upgraded to the latest version of MT-Blacklist, spam hasn't been a problem.

Although I'm fairly sure that I qualify for the free version, I don't see any features worth upgrading to right now.

Model Men

Hiphop History via Tooley

Do check out Tooley's chronology of the rise of Gangsta and commercialism in rap. It's a good reminder, as in "let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be", because there isn't that much humor in rap any longer.

I often think of the golden age of commercial hiphop as exemplified by the House Party crews. Kid & Play, Doug E. Fresh, Biz Markie, Salt & Pepa and Rob Base. Guy and the New Jack Swing. And don't forget "Doin' the Butt" and the rise and fall of Go-Go. This was the music that Quincy Jones reached out to.

I think it's something of a shame that Gangstarr had so little talent at the time (and depending on who you ask, is still short). It's also too bad that Buckshot Lefonque came out too late. Because a lot of what might have been got started too late. The vulgarity of the Roots is what I'm talking about. If they would have started around '89 and picked up the ball where Paris was falling off, then ATCQ, Jungle Bros and De La might have had more company.

By the time Onyx blew up, it was too late. They made lighthearted party rap with humor all look like Kriss Kross. It only lived on with a bit of the Digables and the Wu, but I digress. But let me say one more thing. Daddy Freddy. Daddy Freddy should have been a star. KMD should have lasted. Black Sheep should have lasted.

Anyway do check out Tooley's site. We're on the same side.

Roche's Update on Sadr

Review this:

The fighting we are engaged in against the uprising of Muqtada Al-Sadr is one that is extremely sensitive and risks catastrophe. Had we entered this previously, it would not have been possible for us to win. Over the months, we have been involved in preparations and much planning. Thus, today we are scoring amazing successes against this would-be tyrant.

I ask that the American people be brave. Don't fall for the spin by the weak and timid amongst you that are portraying this battle as a disaster. Such people are always looking for our failure to justify and rescue their constant pessimism. They are raising false flags of defeat in the press and media. It just isn't true.

That's just what I needed to hear.

On Nick Berg: Close Your Eyes

I have a word to those who wish to be in any ways productive over the next week. DON'T.

It answers the question: "Should I watch the Nick Berg video?".

I made the mistake this morning of downloading the video from the Agonist. While the executioners stood over a kneeling Berg, I went to a website and read an overly literal translation from the Arabic. Fortunately I only saw portions of the dispicable act, yet those seconds I will be trying to forget for a while.

I was curious to see the video because I had heard some folks said the video was faked. I figured I could make some determination myself. None of that matters. This is grotesque beyond belief. It's a door you don't want to open. Nowhere in the blogosphere have I heard anyone suggest not watching. I am doing so now. For your own peace of mind, you don't want to let those demons in.

Orders

Abolition & The Civil War

denBeste discusses Abolition as a proximate cause for the Civil War and others follow. I disagree and I think it is notable that this kind of disagreement is present today. As I am one of the few who have championed our current war in Iraq on the grounds of Empire, Humanitarian Rescue and Universal Suffrage most people would argue that it was about Oil or Weapons of Mass Destruction. Likewise there were many factions in the runup to the Civil War who were pursuing their own political agendas, few of whom had the true liberation of the African specifically in mind.

I've only mentioned this topic briefly here in Cobb, however I talked about this at length on Abuzz several years ago. A transcript is here. Download file

Some key excerpts: (from the Archives - Sept, 2000)

the abolitionist movement in the main did not possess the political power in the american congress during the lincoln presidency to force the north into armed conflict with the south on principle. abolitionist leaders in the congress like charles sumner were *reactive* as opposed to proactive with regard to militia actions in the western territories.

preservation of the union was the primary official motive of getting into war. but already guerrila fighting had begun precisely over the matter of slavery in the western territories.

john brown was the spearhead of the militant abolitionists, but he had great problems influencing the rest. in brown's thinking, a war was inevitable and he was bent on escalating the conflict, on the terms of equality under god, a far more radical position than that officilly stated (early or late) on emancipation.

so if you would like to believe that *the* moral motivation for the federalists was the negro question, then you would have to show john brown as the leader of that movement. clearly, brown had no federal sponsors.

i think the crux of this question can be answered by evaluating the positions in the congress of the matters of the two revolutionaries most militantly opposed to the general oppression of the african. and those two are nat turner and john brown. in the end i think you will find that the north was NOT escalating the wars started by those two, but fighting their own war for separate purposes.

lincoln defended the principle of human rights for the african, but that fell far short of civil rights. one could argue that some segment of the african population in the south enjoyed human rights prior to the war. it's rather like newt gingrich attacking bill clinton on the question of marital fidelity.

Darfur

Joe Steps In It

An interesting discussion on black identity over at Open Source Politics.

The Myth of Senseless Violence

It suddenly occurred to me that one of the problems with the way this war has been reported is that it has not been reported like a war. It has been reported like a traffic update, with body counts.

There has been very little context about the geography of the situation since the fall of Baghdad. Instead of hearing about which military units are engaged against which of the enemy in which area, we merely hear things like this AP report:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Mortar fire slammed into a marketplace in Baghdad’s biggest Shiite Muslim neighborhood, and a roadside bomb hit a bus Saturday, a day that saw at least 33 Iraqis killed in multiple attacks. Outside Baghdad, insurgents rocketed a U.S. military base, killing four soldiers.

In Sadr City, the capital’s sprawling Shiite slum, angry residents vented anger at Iraq’s U.S. occupiers after the mortar barrages, which followed an early morning clash in the neighborhood between U.S. troops and militiamen loyal to a radical Shiite cleric.

The worst single incident of the day came when a bomb exploded on a main road as a bus passed near Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad. The back of the bus was shredded and seats crumpled. At least 13 people — including a four-year-old boy — were killed and 17 wounded, said Wasan Nasser, a doctor at Iskan Hospital in neighboring Iskandariyah.

"Mortar fire slammed", "a bomb exploded". "13 killed, 17 wounded". There is very little who, why or context. It just sounds like a traffic report.

What we need to hear is something that might tell us that the 239th Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division is holding the territory Northwest of Blah City and that the supply routes are being successfully defended and we are cutting off theirs. That on a routine patrol of the American supply routes 4 irregulars emerged from a village a few miles away and attacked the convoy. They were captured and the supply line remains open....

Purpose. Direction. Meaning. Understanding. It's not being written into the way this conflict is being reported. Instead it all sounds like senseless violence.

Any idiot (and many do) can say x number of American soldiers were killed in April. But how many can say what they were doing at the time? Who can tell us whether it was a routine operation or something special. This is the reason very little heroism is understood here. 'We support our troops' is a blank check and we're not getting the kind of stories that flesh that out.

Except now that something has gone wrong at Abu Ghraib, or that Nick Berg has been executed. We find out all about where he's been.

Consider the following:

While leading his platoon north on Highway 1 toward Ad Diwaniyah, Chontosh's platoon moved into a coordinated ambush of mortars, rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire. With coalition tanks blocking the road ahead, he realized his platoon was caught in a kill zone.

He had his driver move the vehicle through a breach along his flank, where he was immediately taken under fire from an entrenched machine gun. Without hesitation, Chontosh ordered the driver to advance directly at the enemy position enabling his .50 caliber machine gunner to silence the enemy.

He then directed his driver into the enemy trench, where he exited his vehicle and began to clear the trench with an M16A2 service rifle and 9 millimeter pistol. His ammunition depleted, Chontosh, with complete disregard for his safety, twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack.

When a Marine following him found an enemy rocket propelled grenade launcher, Chontosh used it to destroy yet another group of enemy soldiers.

When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others.

That's reporting. Any questions?

Retrospect

What's A Tip-Drill?

If you know the answer to this question, then perhaps you need a lecture by Jelani Cobb:

It would be easy to assume that sexist music videos are simple entertainment — not the equivalent of a body of myths that have been used to oppress black women, were it not for the fact that the lines between culture and politics are not always that easily distinguishable. Hip hop is now the prevailing global youth culture and, in many instances, the only vision people have of African American life. In a twisted testament to the ubiquity of black culture, a student who spent a semester in China reported back that some of the town residents were fearful of the black male exchange students, having met very few black people, but viewed a great many black-thug music videos.

If you don't know the answer to this question or if you are still unclear about the concept, then in my estimation you are ahead of the game. But apparently serious people deal with the utter foolishness of MTV. Why? Well Jelani Cobb has an excuse. He has to teach young people who presumeably don't have the will to resist MTV. And while it's admirable to take such an opportunity to bring up historical figures like Ida B. Wells and Ronald Reagan, it's sad that one must combat illiteracy in this fashion.

I said illiteracy because that is the state of anyone who views a great many black thug videos, be they in Hong Kong, Marbella or Milwaukee. Not long ago, rock & roll and hiphop were passably instructive. One of my favorite songs said

Fight the Youth
The Youth with poisoned minds
ignite the truth
restore sight to these blind.

Fight the Youth
The Youth with poisoned minds
and if they suffer it's no fault but their own.

I don't have the patience to be an educator. That's a job for folks like Jelani Cobb and my boy Monroe. I don't envy them a bit, because getting people with a 'legitimated' youth culture to respect and understand civilization is trying work.

I think it speaks volumes that the personification of black youth is such a battleground these days. There is such a strong and deep tradition of worrying about what 'The Man' thinks of the Negro. It has kept so many knees from going out of the house without Vaseline. It has kept so much dirty laundry in the closet, that many blackfolks still shudder at the prospects of their race in the face of idiots 'representing' out and about. Where I grew up[pity], we had an expression: "I didn't raise 'em." In the face of that race raising tradition, many blackfolks still get grief for abandoning the least of their brothers. While the charitable sentiment is understood and appreciated, lunkhead hiphoppers and their illiterate groupies and supporters need no respect from me. Nor you.

As the ghetto poet once said: We aint lovin' them whores.

The 'twisted ubiquity' of 'black culture' needs some differentiation. Everything that passes for culture is not Culture. Everything that's creative isn't Art. People defending thug-hop today for the sake of free expression sound like the same ones who defended the 2 Live Crew in the 80s. Censorship isn't the answer, calling bullshit is. This is what the defenders of Art and Culture are called to do, and I wonder if they are when it is so easy to call this vulgar peasant crap 'black culture'. If it were just black culture, then it would just be blacks, but this is universal because it's gutter, and there are gutters, thugs and whores everywhere.

Some day in the next twenty years or so, when people get tired of retro 70s afros and little pimp dolls hawking Sprite, some engaging filmmaker is likely to do for hiphop what Steven Speilburg did for gin joints in 'The Color Purple'. Somebody will romanticize all this sloppy shit in the color of nostalgia. Perhaps kids born in 2020 will think of Tupac the way I thought of Bird Parker. Who can tell? But I hope they dig up this blog and know that everyone wasn't fooled.

Some may think that Nelly's vocabulary reflects poorly on African America and fuels racism worldwide. I think guilt by association works only on those who associate with the guilty. I never heard of a 'tip-drill' and even my imagination doesn't help me figure it out. These aren't people who are fueling a conspiracy of destruction against African America, they're just today's peasants, caught on tape.

Ballot or the Bullet

I've just reviewed Malcolm's famous speech because I used that phrase in a rhetorical question posed to Iraqi militants. There's not much overlap contextually, but the phrase stands out.

The Sadrist rebellion is a big problem and I'm not sure I'm happy with the logic which might appease Al Sadr if he is not forced to stand trial for the murder of Abdul Majid al-Khoei. I think it bodes ill for the country if it is not able to get its courts in order in cooperation with the CPA so long as militias are running around like Afghan warlords.

So I'll repeat, intermperate language and all. Do they want the authority to run their own country or the authority to shoot at Americans? Do they want the ballot or the bullet? If they choose the bullet, they will be crushed. And people who have information about those who choose the bullet will be arrested and dragged off to interrogation - and you all know how the story goes. Somebody in Iraq MUST have heard of Martin Luther King, so why the fuck are they trying to be Nat Turner? They're fucking with the US Marines, dumbasses. The people who just crushed the man who had been crushing them for 30 years. What are they trying to prove, because they are going to die trying.

I think we have some business and responsibility to the future government of Iraq to make an example of Al Sadr. Not to is to concede defeat to the Baby Bin Laden Theory. the Sadrists and their Mahdi Army are a threat to the future stability of Iraqi government, we owe it to those who would be peaceful to stop him.

100 Partially Interesting Self-Indulgent Things

I think I'm a pretty interesting person, but that my public personna is so reserved that most people don't think so. I also express a kind of over the top enthusiasm which can quickly morph into self-possessed detatchment. So I believe that I am rather difficult to get to know. I also have a penchant for glib truth-telling and peasant English. I don't think I know many people who know me well so this is an interesting experiment. It's embarrassing in a way because I feel like I should do it, even though it's all about me. I suppose I can excuse that, being a writer, so here goes...

1. I think this is one of the most self-indulgent posts I've ever done.
2. I owe the Federal Government over 40 thousand dollars in back taxes.
3. My IQ is 136.
4. I do not have a degree in Computer Science.
5. I learned how to program a computer when I was 13.
6. I have had sex with fewer than 50 women.
7. Cobb is my second middle name.
8. I have owned 13 automobiles.
9. My favorite drink is a margarita straight up with no salt.
10. I wear size 10.5 shoes.

Interview

Heads, You Lose

In a cruel twist of fate, Americans who have been screaming for the rhetorical head of Sec'y Rumsfeld have been handed instead the real head of Nick Berg. We have jihadists to thank for this.

I've spent a bit of time reading Juan Cole this afternoon. His angle generally is of the tenor that we don't understand Iraqis well enough to deal with the subtleties of their complaints and are irrevocably retarded and therefore not worthy of engaging them militarily. This is particularly interesting considering his identification of the 'Sadrists' as a legitimate faction whose future needs assurance in the new Iraq. His enthusiasm to identify this group early on may overstate their importance or influence around the country. But there seems to be some contradiction in his coverage over whether or not these vaunted Sadrists are indeed responsible for the Fallujah bridge lynching. Cole is eager to point out that while the Sadrist militia, the 'Al-Mahdi Army' are few in number, the Sadrists themselves number in the tens of thousands. Thus any military action against the militia, while appearing effective only enflames the multitudes. Adding one important point, the CPA and the President have called for the head of the leader of the Sadrist, Muqtada alSadr himself.

The reason I bring this up is because I too think it's important to understand with some clarity, exactly who is doing what to whom and for what reasons. So I question first whether or not the beheaders of Berg are Sadrists, and if so whether Cole and those following his reading of events feel it necessary for them to remain at large given the CPAs calling for his arrest. If not, and the beheaders are truly AQ, what does that say about the Sadrist followers and Sadrist supporters internationally? The point being, there may be complicated links between Iraq and international terrorism now, but if the Sadrists are any indication, then jihadist groups anywhere may be likely to oppose America in similar, popular militant ways.

Stratfor says War:

There are some who argue that it is not reasonable to speak of the
confrontation between the United States and al Qaeda as a war. It certainly
does not, in any way, resemble World War II. It is nevertheless very much a
war. It consists of two sides that are each making plans, using violence and
attempting to shape the political future of a major region of the globe --
the Muslim world. One side masses large forces, the other side disperses much
smaller forces throughout the globe. But the goals are the goals of any war:
to shape the political future. And the means are the same as in any war: to
kill sufficient numbers of the enemy in order to break his will to fight and
resist. It might not look like wars the United States has fought in the past,
but it is most certainly a war -- and it is a war whose outcome is in doubt.

The war against Saddam is over. So who is fighting Americans and coalition members? They are Iraqi militants who are too impatient for the handover, and their violent resistence catalyzes the Islamic partisans whose families are faithful.

What remains to be seen is how long seething resentment can motivate radical militancy and to what extent other partisan groups are willing and able to provide real justice. Whatever happens to Americans, the response is going to be disproportionate. We're big. Deal with it. But I have confidence that our forces are going to strike at the proper partisans. So if we are at war with jihadists (and we are) will enough sensible Iraqis know to move out of the way?

They had better.

Monsters from the Id

Brand New Halo 2 Demo

Destructable vehicles is just the beginning.

OK it's going to be worth the wait.

Less Than Lynching

If I were GWBush I would send a fat-headed general to give a "you can't handle the truth" press conference. The Red Cross report, as adequately and appropriately interpreted by Josh Mitchell, is hardly as damning as many would like it to be.

What that man, way below Rumsfeld, would impatiently explain is some subset of the types of interrogations that go on, as part of the operating standards of our military. Furthermore he would explain the extent to which our military intelligence group authorized the use of certain techniques in the context of what excesses we know about. The point is to make explicit something of the nature of war interrogation and the fuzzy line between that and torture.

For example, what is the significance of using plastic handcuffs (like riot police do) and traditional handcuffs? When is it appropriate to blindfold or hood a prisoner and when is it not? What kinds of threats can an interrogator make?

Only by putting people in the uncomfortable light of options, tactics and uncertainty will some of the weight of responsibility be properly contextualized. It is somebody's job to do this. Were they doing it properly? It is not a question that is answered by a snapshot which is propaganda.

What the Red Cross report makes clear is that the excesses were systematic, that what was going on at Abu Ghraib was roughly what was supposed to be going on, and therefore not particularly aberrant. It is also made clear that whatever abuses occured were directed at a particular subset of the detainees and was not generally applied to any or every POW.

Quite frankly, I was prepared to hear that people's fingers were being chopped off or that their eyes or teeth were being poked out - the stuff of American gangster movies. But what we have, as Kevin Drum excerpts, is not quite up to par with American lynching. Emmitt Till got a much worse deal than any Iraqi detainee.

It is unclear whether or not any of these high-value detainees were hospitalized or required hospitalization, or that those needing it were denied. The priorities on hooding and permanent nerve damage seem appropriately high on the list of abuses.

I am pleased that we've been able to get this information quickly, and this seems to derail the impact of any extensive Congressional inquiry although we're likely to get one anyway. I cannot estimate what impact such news is likely to have on anyone although I am hesitant to publish some of the cartoons I've written in light of this revelation.

However one may feel about the purposes of this conflict, the ways and means of its accomplishment are very serious, and while it always makes sense to compare and contrast what Americans have done with what Saddam has done, it is most important to determine whether or not we Americans are breaking our own standards. That is job one. I find it difficult to believe that any information gained by breaking these prisoners is a net positive given how its news has been recieved in the West, but I am equally sure that it is not fundamentally changing Iraqi opinion in the street, given what they know of the Baathists.

It is inconceivable to me that the Iraqi on the street, given his dire conditions, is not at all looking forward to the establishment of self-rule. So the kind of rebellion established by militia groups and evidently supported by a sizeable plurality of Iraqis suggests to me that no absolute standards of law and order are attainable. If the CPA cannot arrest, and having arrested cannot deliver to justice then all expectations of the occupation should be as cynical as possible. But it is the highlighting of this aspect which erodes support for what peacable transistion the CPA expects to carry out. To the extent that propaganda of this sort is used to characterize the aims of occupation and the ways and means by which it is being accomplished, the CPA is undermined. Let us remember that the purpose of the American forces of occupation is primarily to secure the operations of the CPA as it works to make that transition real.

UPDATE: There is more grisly stuff than I expected, given that I expected Drum and Marshall to show the worst. Cryptome, a very trusted source, has this copy online: Note in particular paragraphs 15-18 as the gravest of the alleged war crimes.

Explode

Janet Who?

When I mentioned to Pops last weekend about the appointment of Michael Kinsley to the LATimes, he knew immediately that it mean curtains for the black woman who previously ran the show. Among the millions in the Kwaku network, I had no idea whom he was talking about. All I knew now was that a [heretofore obscure] black woman lost her gig to Mike Kinsley.

For all I knew, Karen Grigsby-Bates was the highest ranking black of any stature at the Times, and she has done well for herself with her new gigs at NPR. But Janet Clayton, at 48, was apparently the woman.

I take her invisibility and obscurity as a plus. I have been thinking about racial integration recently, especially in light of a recent interview by Brian Lamb of Charles Ogletree about his new book 'All Deliberate Speed' where he talks about 100 years past Brown is the drop dead date for affirmative actions. Also in that mix was Adrian Piper's declarations of not. She is not a 'black' this or that.

Check this story on other news in journalism.

Guilty

The Horror

Big Media Subversion, The Cool Zone & Dead Links

I've decided to go back to view the very first website I ever built which is almost 10 years old. It was 'The Cool Zone'. For better or worse, large sections of it can still be found here.
Excerpted from the intro to the Cool Zone:

the cool zone is a black cultural product in cmc which is designed to interactively involve folks with artifacts of various types. these artifacts whether visual, textual or aural will, if everything works properly, provide a basis for what i beleive is a new art form. this art form puts the flavor of blackness - the expository cultural components of african-american life - into the technology of the 90s.

For many years, in fact most of my life online, I wrote interactively in lower case so as to distinguish it from the work I composed offline. From this distance it looks cool still, but a bit futile and immature. The thing I think I've learned most over the years is to stand alone as an observer - connecting the dots in my mind publicly and letting that influence (or not) fall where it may. I no longer conceive of myself as a director of motion, although I still fall into the embodiment bag. Nor is the personna stuff so necessary. I am accustomed to the level of scrutiny and feedback the internet provides. I have no expectation and therefore no fear of fame.

What brings me to talk about the Cool Zone is twofold. The first is to link to 'B' which might have been the first group blog, or perhaps something a bit like 'word.com'. I see in so many words what Orcinus' gripe is about the media, and in concert with Gerard quotes of the Iron Rules I remembered my same gripe. I started it with 'B' way back in the days. In fact, much of what brought me to the Internet was a purposeful subversion of big media fueled as it was by the Big Lies about black Los Angeles pre- and post-riot and informed by Marshall Blonsky's semiotics.

From my intro to 'B'

In my view the editorial style and physical limitations of what we call newspapers force researchers into particular ways of seeing things that lack the authenticity of the voice of people, African Americans, especially. The very manner in which newspapers and televised journalistic reports are assembled are biased to profess the false objectivity of journalists who themselves have become a very powerful class of Americans. This bias for me has become unendurable and I find it most annoying to parse through a multiplicity of papers to get at the truth. Having done so, the truth I arrive at seems much the product of oppositional cross-examination of institutions with much to hide. Yet often there are odd spots of writing I happen upon which ring with the flavor of authentic experience. It is this type of information that gives me the confidence that the world is indeed populated by human beings who can understand and explain it and do so out of genuine curiosity and love.

The second, interesting in passing note is the sad resignation I find in the finding out. It turns out that only bloggers, something I would have not suspected, have come forward to subvert the signs. I thought it might be a bit more intstitutionally based. And so when I see the dead links in the Bastions Plane of the Cool Zone, I am sadly reminded that black grass roots & other organizations never really did the hookup. Nobody did really. Not in a transformative way about informing our society about what's going on at ground level.

Hopefully soon we'll turn our cameras back to home when this awful war is over, now that the technology is cheap and abundant. We may yet find out what we're all about. Who's manning the thousand points of light?

African

Exercising the Physical Soul

I was just writing about Teleology the other day in response to denBeste's argument about the three forces in geopolitical conflict today. This was extending an argument I had made against the anti-theism of Christopher Hitchens. In both, I assert the fact of the soul and the need for humanity to search for and understand the mind of god as a pre-requisite for the scale of civilization we wish to maintain.

I look at religion as a way of knowing. It retains the potential for a kind of multidisciplinary education and the more ways it touches life, the more meaningful it becomes. As an Episcopalian, I'm afraid of Muslims because perhaps like Merton in the context of his criticism of Episcopalians as irreligious, I understand that Islam cannot be so easily compartmentalized. So what I find most appealing about the evolved religions is the richness of rituals and sacraments. You eat, you drink, you embrace, you stand, you kneel, you sing, you walk slowly, you sit in silence. If it were all about sermons and arguments about the nature of god, it could be compartmentalized, abstracted and lost in the crowded mediasphere.

I say that people are looking for what 'reality tv' gives them, an opportunity (if only vicariously) to undergo an 'extreme makeover' to be taken out of the matrix and physically challenged in a kind of rituality. Our bourgie lives demand it.

The church that only makes us sit and listen quietly will die. Our souls may transcend our bodies, but how does our inspiration move our bodies? The intersections are sparse in contemporary American life, and I think part of the stirrings we feel have to do with the disconnectedness of our physical activities with any philosophical purity. We bemoan the corruption of sport because in participating in sport we gain the experience of embuing a physical memory with the discipline of following strict rules. Knowing that Sport is owned and the rules of money overcome the sphere in which sportsmanship rules is very painful. For traditional sports in many ways it is a fait accompli, which is why I believe youth are drawn to the anti-corporatism of extreme sports, skateboarding and triathalon for example.

The urge towards religion engages the spirit, the soul. So does sport at its purest. In many ways, a graver physical sort of sacrament, especially a rite of passage, could make a tremendous difference in how central religion could be in American life or any life. Into the void, the work of the body will become the work of the devil, thus Crusades are around the corner.

Inspiration A: The recognition of the fundamental human need for religion.
Inspiration B: The moral appeal of military discipline.

Tortured Logic

McCotter