Friday, July 29, 2005

Busy at work, but obviously not too busy.

The National Park Service website has proved yet again to be incredibly fun and informative. Yesterday I discovered that I can spy on the Grand Canyon 24 hours a day. There's also a shot of Washington, DC, Teddy Roosevelt National Park, Point Reyes, and many more.

posted by Rebecca C. Brown at 11:36 AM
(1) comments

Monday, July 25, 2005

Best. Two. Weeks. EVER.

I got back from my Epic Journey across two-thirds of the country last night, and though I don't have time to write about it now (for some reason my bosses expect me to actually work at work), I can safely say that it was the best vacation I've ever taken.

I will tell you about one fantastic stop, though. Next time you're in Mitchell, South Dakota, make sure to check out the Corn Palace. It's a-maize-ing.

Did I miss any news while I was gone?

posted by Rebecca C. Brown at 9:41 AM
(3) comments

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Going to Italy

I'll be going to Italy for a coulple weeks so I won't be able to post much. I will be trying to talk politics with my relatives in Sicily though. For that reason I've been trying to bone up on Italian politics and language of politics. One thing I have learned, the italian language scrimps on words a lot. "Politics" is "politico". "Politicial" is "politico". "Poitician" is "uomo politico".

Roberto Benigni is not a big fan of Burlusconi. Burlusconi owns a lot of media channels in Italy (condencing the Rupert Murdoch / Bush arrangment to one man). Burlusconi's political party ("partita politico") is named "Forza Italia" which means "Go Italy!" or "Italy Rocks". Other parties include everything from anti-immagrant northerners to full frontal communists. The communists apparently busy themselves with anti-corruption and anti-mafia stuff and don't harp on the "getting rid of all capitalism" stuff too much so that's good. I have seen no references to Italian Libertairans. Perhaps it would do the US and Italy good if we can export a few of ours their.

Lastly, Sicily will be hot this time of year. Boy-o-boy, will it be hot.

posted by Tommaso Sciortino at 3:56 PM
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Monday, July 11, 2005

Let's keep the playground politics to a minimum

The love of my life, bless his adorable little heart, likes listening to Air America whenever he's in his car or bedroom. Given that he and I spend a good amount of time together, and given that I'm not the kind of woman who insists upon getting her way, that means that I have to suffer through talk radio many, many hours a week as well. I have bad news, liberals: Air America talk radio is still talk radio. The hosts still fail to substantiate their claims most the time, they still repeat themselves endlessly for the entirety of their slots, they still surround themselves almost exclusively with like-minded guests and callers and thus foster no exciting discussion, and they're still mostly boring. Jerry Springer is my favorite because he is usually the most insightful and least repetitive and least likely to resort to baseless emotional appeals. If only he had been born in this fine country, he might one day make an excellent president.

Anyhow, one argument that I hear/read often on Air America and from the mouths/keyboards of lefties these days is that the Bush administration's unsavory anti-terror policies are deplorable in part because they provide terrorists more fodder for hating us. For example, breaking Geneva Convention rules at Guantanamo Bay is especially nasty because it gives terrorists more reason to attack us, thus further endangering the safety of Americans. In other words, not only is mistreating prisoners bad because it's evil, it's also bad because it lets evil-doers feel more justified in their evil-doing. This argument, I believe, though it's difficult to substantiate, is probably sound.

So why does it make me so uncomfortable to go along with it?

I've figured out that I'm not a fan of what I categorize as playground politics. The above argument basically states to some degree, You shouldn't abuse prisoners because that'll just make them hate us more. It's akin to, You shouldn't beat up the nerdy kid because one day he could grow up and be rich and powerful like Bill Gates. It's also analogous to, Billy hit Jimmy first, so it's understandable that Jimmy would then hit Billy. Lastly, it's also similar to, Breaking the rules is wrong because when I break the rules I get in trouble. Children are expected to grow out of these interpersonal misconceptions by the time they get to fourth grade.

I haven't heard any liberal, no matter how wacky in the head, say that terrorists are justified in committing violence because of the way America has conducted itself, which is a relief. Those people are jerkoffs.

But I wish, in my magical mystical gilded unicorn land where violence is wrong in and of itself, that it was convincing enough to simply say, Abusing prisoners like this is bad because it's inhumane. You'd think that abuse was bad enough that we wouldn't have to re-direct the argument to how the abuse will eventually come around and hurt us. I guess that's why I've never really been into kharma; I'd like to think that I'm a conscientious person because that's the right thing to do, not because if I'm a turd then people will be mean to me. Same goes for that whole threat of Hell thing.

Again, it's a completely valid argument to say that defiling the Koran is a shitty thing to do because it gives Muslims more reason to hate dirty Americans. But even making that statement detracts from the more basic but more important point, which is that defiling the Koran is just a shitty thing to do, plain and simple.

The moral of the story is that Air America is really boring most of the time. Air America sometimes has the same problem that Berkeley has in that it's predictable and rarely challenged. Also like Berkeley, Air America is smug. And loud. And way less cool than listening to a CD in the car or having a fricken' conversation.

P.S. My good buddy Paul and I are scooting out for a 13-day road trip to Chicago and back starting Tuesday, so hopefully in my absence Tommaso will keep you entertained. In part the point of the trip for me is for me to see parts of America that I probably will never have the chance or reason to see again (i.e., Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico). It's easy to just conceive of that entire section of the country as an amorphous blob of "red states," and forget that real-life people actually live there and carry on normal lives. I'm also looking forward to meeting Paul's parents, who, if they are anything like their son, must be really awesome. Keep the Bay Area warm for me while I'm gone!

posted by Rebecca C. Brown at 12:09 AM
(8) comments

Friday, July 08, 2005

Love the Liberalism, Hate the Lib

(Cross-posted to The Party Line)

It’s a common theme in the liberal blogs that nowadays it isn’t enough that conservatives and liberals disagree on how to interpret facts; they disagree on the facts themselves. We’re all familiar with how listeners of Al Franken and Bill O’Reilly might come to inhabit startlingly factual universes (one more or less factual, the other where Ward Churchill is important) but more subtly, with “Shape of the Earth, views differ” journalism, liberals and conservatives can confirm diametrically opposed, ideological sanitized, understandings of the facts on the ground even if they read the same newspaper.

There’s a lot to say about this but I want to talk about one part of this set-up that’s been bugging me like nobody’s business: The way certain “contrarian” thinkers are in fact, not contrarian at all. Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan come to mind. Here we have two people who pull the simple trick of amalgamating philosophies from one camp with the factual landscape of the other. It certainly looks like original though, but the great part is it doesn’t require any original thinking.

Hitchens is an old lefty, but yeah, it makes total sense to invade Iraq before finding and punishing Bin Laden. Why? Well, because the neo-conservative “reverse domino-theory” plan to remake Iraq was sound. Those conservatives: always coming up with the plans that work. Why can’t liberals do that?

Let’s take a look at his endorsement of Bush from, yes, this last election:

"Anybody But Bush"--and this from those who decry simple-mindedness--is now the only glue binding the radical left to the Democratic Party right. The amazing thing is the literalness with which the mantra is chanted. Anybody? Including Muqtada al-Sadr? The chilling answer is, quite often, yes. This is nihilism. Actually, it's nihilism at best. If it isn't treason to the country--let us by all means not go there--it is certainly treason to the principles of the left.

I have no idea which left Hitchens is referring to. I live in Berkeley and work in San Fransisco and have yet to meet someone who would vote for a terrorist* over Bush (even online!) Hell, I’ve even been student democrat functions. No. These “facts” are the kind you’d find in an unpublished Ann Coulter polemic and in that form they’d be laughed off the stage as they should. Pair up these “facts” with a guy who still claims to believe in progressive taxation and they make for a kind of buddy-cop movie of political opinion** that contrasts with the rest of the thinkers out there. It’s different, I suppose, but it’s the intellectual equivalent of switching the couch with the bed: In the end, you still have a room full of Ikea furniture.

Well, now I’ve gone and written too much. I want to talk about Andrew Sullivan next but that’ll have to wait. Here’s a brain-teaser for you: How is McCain’s “anti-abortion except for rape and incest” more conservative than Sullivans total anti-abortion stance? It’s easy if you know why.

*Especially one who does not reflect America’s pro-choice views.

**This metephor doesn't actually mean anything.

posted by Tommaso Sciortino at 7:00 AM
(4) comments

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

I think I may have found my calling as a sex advice columnist

Surprisingly enough, my column from last week, which discussed some of the finer points of pornographic politics, was a big hit with the readers. I received a record number of e-mails, all of which priased me for my talents, and most of which recommended some sites for me to visit in the further pursuit of good porn. Thanks, dedicated readers!

Also, from now on, my title is no longer "campus personality Rebecca C. Brown." It's "campus personality and globally-appreciated author Rebecca C. Brown." I got an e-mail from Finland on Monday, and something from a law student in London last week. Though, according to The Man at the Daily Cal office, I'm not allowed to publish the e-mails that I receive in my DC inbox on my blog, I can tell you (I think) that he was essentially thanking me for being a sexually enlightened female voice, and that he forwarded my column to a few of his "girl friends" who didn't like being filmed having sex with him. I'm probably also not allowed, according to my contract, to publish my responses to these e-mails, but I'm going to do it anyway. Enjoy

T-

Glad to be of service! I hope you were Googling "cock slap" when you found
my article. That would put a ray of sunshine in my day.

Allow me to play sex advice columnist for a moment. No, sir, you are not
sick or demented or even that unusual in your desire to create homemade
porn. Homespun sex videos are a popular alternative to regular porn
because they allow the producers to dictate their own "plot" and pacing
and moves and, of course, porn stars. They are also (usually) less sullied
by silicone and stupid stage names and bad acting. And who doesn't enjoy
getting filmed naked with a gentleman who could potentially later release
that video on the internet without his co-star's authorization?

Oh, wait. Yeah. See why your girlfriends might not be so eager to strip
down and be filmed having sex?

Undoubtedly you are a very trustworthy and respectful fellow, but in this
century it's difficult for a woman who does not want to make porn her
livelihood to have sex on camera without some reservations about the
eventual home of the footage.

There are also social and personal issues at play when a woman declines to
be taped. You said "girl friends" (plural), implying that you are not in
an exclusive long-term relationship, which might prove to be a road block
in your quest for cottage industry porn. I'm a fairly outgoing and
confident woman, and it was months and months before I would allow my
boyfriend to take nude pictures of me. Even to the most self-assured
women, the camera's lens can be pretty intimidating, and it's more
intimidating when the man behind the camera isn't someone with whom you
have an exclusive and serious relationship predicated on trust and
honesty.

The women you ask to film might also feel that, by introducing a camera
into the situation, you/she/both of you will feel obligated to perform
unnaturally and/or attempt to replicate what you've seen in professional
pornography, rather than "acting naturally." This would defeat the whole
point of homemade porn, and would be enjoyable for nobody.

There are thousands of women in Britain alone who would be pleased as
punch to have sex with you in front of your camcorder, and with the help
of the internet these women should not be hard to find. But if a
girlfriend hesitates to get down and dirty with you on tape, don't cajole.
Be considerate, and try to be sensitive to the issues I mentioned above.
Some women will NEVER be convinced that amateur porn is their cup of tea;
other women will discover, with the help of a kind and considerate and in
no way pushy guy, that they actually like having sex on tape; other
women will fuck your brains out on video faster than you can say
"crumpets."

Good luck finding a willing film lab partner! It's a healthy and
potentially beautiful use of modern technology, if executed correctly and
sensitively.

Have a splendid Independence Day weekend. You should be glad that America
won that war. You're better off without us.

Thanks for reading!

For the sake of full disclosure, I have to reveal that I've never done anything even vaguely sexual on camera, but it's not like I said otherwise in the e-mail, and as long as I write with a tone of authority I think I sound like I know what I'm doing. Isn't that what all good advice columnists do? Pretend to know more than they actually do? Dude, they should let me do Sex on Tuesday next semester, even though I graduated in May and know nothing about sex and disobey Daily Cal rules.

Also, sorry for the light posting this past week. I was in SoCal for five days, livin' it up in my new (er, new to me) car.

posted by Rebecca C. Brown at 10:10 PM
(9) comments

Monday, July 04, 2005

Yay independence!

Happy 4^th of July, ya’ll. In addition to the barbecuing and excessive drinking today, let’s remember the patriots who fought from our country’s independence and for those service men and women fighting for us right now*. Also, let’s remember that the promise of American liberty, though incomplete and tarnished has been a positive example to the world.

My parents did not come to America to escape political oppression. Though I enjoy participating in a government relatively free of corruption (when compared to Palermo Sicily in the 70’s) they were not political people. Nor did they come to escape simple economic oppression; though I think Sicily has some bad labor laws it’s no Communist state. Instead, they came to the United States for economic opportunity: for better options, not just additional crappy ones.

To me, these positive freedoms: freedom from want, freedom from fear, aside the negative ones: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, set the promise of America apart. People aren’t happy to just act independently – the freedom of Robison Crusoe alone on his island – they want meaningful opportunities to act. They don’t just want to eliminate the corruption of government funds; they want their taxes to make their community and their selves better off. In short, people the world over want a government for the people, of the people, and by the people. That’s why the come to our country and it’s what makes America great.

* I don’t recommend thanking their civilian politician leadership however.

posted by Tommaso Sciortino at 7:28 AM
(3) comments