While Dave Neiwert at Orcinus has an excellent post up detailing why exactly hate crimes are not thought crimes, this morning’s news from Russia brought with it a picture that crystallizes things all-too perfectly:
This is not speech.
This is not thought.
This is a hate crime: Peter Tatchell is about to be assaulted because he is gay.
Remember this image the next time you hear someone complain that hate crimes are about criminalizing speech or thoughts. They aren’t. They’re about meting out additional punishment because of the motivations of the criminal – a concept already accepted by, nay, deeply embedded in Western law.
When they whine that all crimes are hate crimes, ask them how jaywalking or panhandling involves hate. When they backpedal and try to say that oh no, they only meant violent crimes, ask them why we then have the concept of involuntary homicide or of manslaughter, or accessory to commit, or any of those violent crimes that do not actually involve, well, intent.
And maybe you should ask that person what rights of theirs, exactly, they think are curtailed under hate crimes laws. Because the only ‘right’ that is being restricted is their ‘right’ to be that fascist in the photo with the cocked arm.
Posted by protected static as politics at 11:59 AM UTC
No Comments »
Doug @ Balls & Walnuts tagged me to participate:
The Little-Known Favorites Meme. Rules: List and describe three of your favorite books that other people might not be familiar with. Then tag five people. See, easy!
Easy, indeed. Admittedly, it would be easier if I still had all my books (that’s Seattle living for you), and many of my more obscure favorites are still at my parents (or at least, they were… after dealing with the estates of two elderly relatives, they’ve made a point of at least pretending to clean out the attic).
At any rate, I decided to stick to a theme: arms and armor, a long-time interest of mine. (I grew up a short distance from The Higgins Armory, and that was like crack… Mmmm. Shiny.) So, without too much ado, my three little-known favorites:
- Arms & Armor: Essays by Stephen V. Grancsay
If you follow the Amazon link, no – I didn’t pay that much for it! I bought it in one of the (at the time) many second-hand bookstores that were in Silver Spring, MD back in the early 90s… I can’t say how much of the thinking about armor has changed since these essays were written (1920 – 1964), but the photos alone make this book absolutely magnificent. If you’ve ever been to The Metropolitan Museum and seen their armor hall, this book is a little like being able to open the cases up and touch the pieces.
- Imperial Austria: Treasures of Art, Arms & Armor From the State of Styria
This is a catalog from an exhibit I saw at the Smithsonian’s Ripley International Center, again back in the early 90s. Styria was the Checkpoint Charlie of its day, the frontier between the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires. As a result of its proximity to the Turks, the state of Styria maintained massive armories – for centuries. What resulted is the pretty much the largest collection of field-grade armor anywhere in the world – not the showy parade or ceremonial pieces most often displayed in museums, but the armor of the common soldier of the 1500 – 1600s. This was a working armory, and it shows – you can still see the tool marks of the original craftsmen on these pieces; no more polishing was done than was needed to prevent rusting, so few details have been erased over the years. The exhibition displayed many of the pieces on abstract, skeletal armatures in order to expose these very details. For an armor geek, it was Nirvana.
- Arms and Armor: Traditional Weapons of India
This last one is a recent addition, purchased in the markets of Jew Town, Cochin. Indian armor and weapons are a fascinating mix of influences, the most pronounced of which are probably the Persian/Mugal arabesques as depicted on the cover. Not a lot to tell about this little volume, other than that it does an excellent job of putting a lesser-known subject into context and bringing it to life.
So there you are. Three lesser-known favorites of mine. I don’t typically do the ‘tag’ thing, but today I’m feeling game. I’m gonna tag Carnacki, Karen, and whoever else feels like playing (nudge, nudge – Kristina).
Posted by protected static as random at 10:00 AM UTC
3 Comments »
This morning, looking for something to do, I decided to take The Boy down to Tacoma to a sea kayak event. I went to look at gear, not the classes (maybe next year), and shelling out for a test-drive wouldn’t have done me any good since I was looking at boats that’d fit The Boy… a year or so from now, once he’s grown a little more and is a better swimmer. But this is all neither here nor there…
As I was backing the car out of the driveway, The Boy asked me to turn some music on. I clicked the stereo over to FM (I knew he didn’t like the CD I had in), and settled in to KEXP’s Sunday morning show, Preaching the Blues. I didn’t recognize what was on, but I liked it well enough – blues with a funky bass line. But then the music critic spoke up…
“No. I want something else.”
“What do you want?”
“I want something that sounds less Disney.”
Sounds. Less. Disney. M’kay… Nope. No idea what he’s talking about.
“Huh? What do you mean ’sounds less Disney’?”
“I want something that sounds less Disney.”
“Yes, I heard that, but I don’t understand what you mean by that.”
Whereupon he imitated the funky bass line.
“I want something that doesn’t sound as much like Disney Radio*. Do we have any Love and Rockets in the car.”
Why yes, we most certainly do… I won’t say that my work here is done, but I do think that we’ve managed to achieve some significant damage progress.
* We get a slew of XM Radio stations through DirectTV – I think we’ve turned that on for him while he’s playing in the media room fewer than half a dozen times…
Posted by protected static as random at 11:17 PM UTC
2 Comments »
And, possibly, a child-rapist:
The soldier son of talk radio relationship counselor Laura Schlessinger is under investigation for a graphic personal Web page that one Army official has called “repulsive.”
The MySpace page, publicly available until Friday when it disappeared from the Internet, included cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation; photographs of soldiers with guns in their mouths; a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee captioned “My Sweet Little Habib”; accounts of illicit drug use; and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets.
[...]
”Yes . . . F—ING Yes!!!” said one blog entry on the Schlessinger site. “I LOVE MY JOB, it takes everything reckless and deviant and heathenistic and just overall bad about me and hyper focuses these traits into my job of running around this horrid place doing nasty things to people that deserve it . . . and some that don’t.”
War is an ugly thing. It takes normal people and can make them ugly; it can take ugly people and make them uglier still. The fact is that even under the best of circumstances, horrible things happen, horrible things happening in our name.
Very few soldiers do these things; some just talk about doing these things; some make stories like these up for attention. But make no mistake – things like these are happening. That a so-called relationship (and parenting) expert’s child was publicly boasting about engaging in such things is richly toxic icing on an already poisonous cake. And I’m finding it hard not to draw a line between Dr. Laura’s attitudes towards, well, everything – the war, non-Christians, society – and her son’s alleged actions.
By their works shall ye know them, eh?
Posted by protected static as politics at 9:59 AM UTC
No Comments »
Lloyd Alexander, creator of The Chronicles of Prydain, died yesterday at 83. Ironically, in this so-called age of Internet time, as of this hour, ‘his’ site doesn’t reflect this.
I discovered Alexander’s books when I was just past the upper bound of his intended audience’s age. Still, they were a great read, and a wonderful, if indirect, introduction to Welsh mythology. They’re on the list of Things We Intend To Read To The Boy – provided he can wait that long (he’s starting to request time to read by himself in bed instead of bedtime stories).
If you’re a fan of fantasy fiction and all you know of Alexander is Disney’s abominable adaptation of The Black Cauldron, do yourself a favor and try to purge whatever memories you have of that atrocity and give the Chronicles a whirl… It’s definitely written with a lighter touch than any of Tolkien’s work, and more explicitly intended for a ‘young adult’ audience – but it’s really well written and (IMO) still worth a go.
(And yes, the title of this piece quotes Gurgi (who else?) from The Black Cauldron…)
Posted by protected static as cultcha, geek at 8:46 PM UTC
4 Comments »
I wasn’t going to write anything about Falwell’s passing. I’m pretty sure my regular readers already know how I feel about the man, and, well, despite my self-professed goal of contributing to the denominator and not the numerator in the internet’s signal/noise ratio, I figured that if anything was going to generate noise, this would be it. And boy howdy, has it made some noise.
Still, I did come across some flickering traces of signal, the best of which so far is probably Brad DeLong’s piece. Roy Edroso also wrote something which comes reasonably close to expressing how I feel about the moment – not exact, but close enough for government work.
That’s all, just links. No commentary, witty, nasty, banal, or otherwise. Some days are just like that.
Posted by protected static as politics at 9:59 AM UTC
No Comments »
So sayeth the logo on the side of the brightly-painted taco wagon located just North of the Ballard Bridge. Occupying an otherwise vacant lot, this little red wagon has been slowly establishing itself at the corner of 15th AV NW & NW 50th ST for a few months now, and I’ve been dying to give it a try.
Well, today I gave in to that urge.
I can’t comment on the loco-ness of their tacos – no, I went for a tortas asada, the Mexican version of a Cubano? a bahn mi? I’ve read that it shares some of the same French colonial heritage as a bahn mi, crusty French bread committing acts of culinary miscegenation with indigenous ingredients. With the bahn mi, it’s a baguette gone native; here, it’s a big, pillowy-yet-crusty roll, toasted on a griddle and stuffed with grilled meats, lettuce, tomato, and laced with good mayo (another quiet nod to its kinship with the bahn mi, perhaps?).
It was heavenly. The bread was toasted to perfection, perfumed with the aroma of a well-seasoned, buttery grill. Cool, crisp lettuce mingled with a swirl of mayo around perfectly grilled, bite-sized tidbits of carne asada. Lumps of rich, perfectly ripe avocado melted in my mouth – it was pretty close to a sandwich nirvana. The only off note came from the anemic if seasonally-appropriate tomato slices. Eh. If they still have tomatoes like that in a couple of months, then it’ll be something to really complain about. Until then, I can overlook it.
Coupled with a Jallisco Tamarindo, this came to a little over six bucks. Yeah, that sounds like a lot for just a sandwich, but that ain’t too bad for a Seattle lunch. Their tacos and burritos are less expensive, and it looks like they have a regularly-updated daily special – today it was tamales. All-in-all, I’d say it was worth it. And while the menu appears small, there’s actually quite a variety of stuff to try since most of it comes in various meaty permutations: chicken, pork, chorizo, asada… oh yeah, and tongue. I may have to try a tongue tortas. You know, just to say that I have.
At any rate, I’ll definitely be back. They look like they’re there to stay; they’ve got a little tent with tables and an infrared heater set up, and they had a decent line of customers when I was there – mostly contractors/blue-collar workers, mostly Latino, but there were a couple of Anglo women who looked like office workers, and they were clearly regulars.
There’s another taco truck that’s taken up residence in the parking lot of a donut shop in our neighborhood. Now that I have a baseline from Taco Loco, I’ll have to give them a try too.
Posted by protected static as random at 8:50 PM UTC
9 Comments »
Posted by protected static as humor, programming at 10:00 PM UTC
2 Comments »