From here on out, this journal is friends only.

comment if you wish to be added.

Someone take away Palin's fucking microphone... I'm looking at you, Republicans.

First we have the ridiculous Letterman argument, in which Letterman joked that Sarah Palin's (unnamed) daughter was “knocked up by Alex Rodriguez,” which Palin turned into a shit-storm for all the wrong reasons. Was the joke bad? Yes. Was it a rape joke about Palin's 14 year old daughter, as Palin claims, and not about her older daughter? No. The joke can still be understood as offensive to teen mothers by suggesting that they're whores, and that warrants a discussion (although not a weeks worth of coverage, like Palin got out of it) but that isn't how it was articulated. She spoke from a position that sought sympathy for her and her family, and ignored the larger implications of the joke.

Now we have a new ridiculous argument between Palin and some Alaskan blogger by the name of Linda Kellen Biegel, because Biegel photoshopped a photo of Palin's 1 year old (who happens to have down syndrome) and replaced his face with the face of conservative alaskan talk show host Eddie Burke. The joke—if it can even be called a joke—has nothing to do with children/people with down syndrome; it's suggesting a level of intimacy between Palin and Burke that is almost familial. This is turning a non-issue into another strategy for sympathy. Sarah Palin needs to get a fucking backbone and stop expecting republicans to dab away her tears while wagging a finger at her 'attackers'.

Palin bothers me for many reasons... first, her continued national media presence has forced me to learn more about Alaskan politics than anyone not from or living in Alaska ever should know... Hell, no one should bother with Maine politics if they're not from or living in the area, and we have twice the population as Alaska... Palin is the governor of the state of 'who gives a fuck', and should be ignored as such. Second, unless one thinks of laying in a coffin as a future, this woman is not the future of the GOP. If the Republican party wants to die, don't let me stop you. If that's you're plan, let me know; I'll go buy popcorn to munch on while I watch.

Lastly (at least of the reasons I'm going to list) Palin may be the worst representative of women currently in American politics. Some may say that isn't her job, but I disagree. If you are a member of a historically disadvantaged group, regardless of who your voting constituency is, you must also represent the interests of that disadvantaged group. To not do so suggests that you believe there is no disparity of opportunity, and that the identity in question no longer possesses meaning. To quote Madeleine Albright (correctly, since Palin famously fucked it up last year) “there is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.”

awesome. REALLY looking forward to the 'Reborn' story arc. I have a lot of thoughts on where they're going with it, where I'd like them to go with it, and what this means in relation to the comic as a whole, but I'll probably write about it some other time. I'm very pleased. $5 well spent.

As I suspected, Isaiah Bradley (often referred to as the black Captain America) and his grandson, Elijah Bradley (the Patriot) have a role to play. I'm glad Captain America: Truth is getting worked into the mythos to a greater degree. It looks like they are planning on bringing back the 'real' Steve Rogers, and it isn't just going to be the Steve Rogers/Cap from the 1950s who is still kicking around. This doesn't mean Rogers is going to go back to being Cap, however, and there is still the Civil War problem and the fact that, before he was killed (or thought to have been killed) he was going on trial for treason.

No word, as far as I've seen, on how much longer Brubaker is sticking with Cap. He had originally said he'd stop at fifty, and he is officially one over that number now. we'll see. I'll be sad to see him go, but hopefully they'll pick someone who can work with what Brubaker has set up.

Liz says I'm getting geekier and more lame... liz is mean.

I've applied to two positions at Preble Street (http://www.preblestreet.org/). I've sent out a lot of resumes, but I'm REALLY crossing my fingers for one of the two positions. Not only does it fit my 'a job that doesn't make me hate myself' requirement, it fits with my 'a job that will make me feel good about the work I'm doing' ideal.

No whammies,
Seth

The following is (what I consider to be) the pertinent excerpts from Bob Black's "My Anarchism Problem," which I was reminded of by it's uploading on the new online anarchist library (http://theanarchistlibrary.org/) and an argument currently going on in anarcho_snark (which is actually the same argument from a few weeks ago reposted). The full text of Black's essay can be found here: http://theanarchistlibrary.org/my-anarchism-problem

To call yourself an anarchist is to invite identification with an unpredictable array of associations, an ensemble which is unlikely to mean the same thing to any two people, including any two anarchists.
...

The trouble with anarchists is that they think they have agreed on what they all oppose — the state — whereas all they have agreed on is what to call it. You could make a good case that the greatest anarchists were nothing of the sort. Godwin wanted the state to wither away, but gradually, and not before the progress of enlightenment prepared people to do without it. Which seems to legitimate really existing statism and culminate in the banality that if things were different they would not be the same. Proudhon, who served in the French national legislature, in the end arrived at a theory of “federalism” which is nothing but the devolution of most state power on local governments. Kropotkin's free communes may not be nation-states but they sure sound like city-states. Certainly no historian would regard as anything but ludicrous Kropotkin's claim that medieval cities were anarchist.

If some of the greatest anarchists, upon inspection, appear to fall somewhat short of consistency on even the defining principle of anarchism itself — the abolition of the state — it is not too surprising if some of the lesser lights are likewise dim bulbs. The One Big Union of the syndicalists, who also uphold the duty to work, is one big state to everybody else, and totalitarian to boot. Some “anarcha”-feminists are book-burners. Dean Murray Bookchin espouses third-party politics and municipal statism, eerily parallel to the borderline fascist militia/Posse Comitatus movement which would abolish all government above the county level. And Bakunin's “invisible government” of anarchist militants is, at best, a poor choice of words, especially on the lips of a Freemason.

Anarchists are at odds over work, industrialism, unionism, urbanism, science, sexual freedom, religion and much more which is more important, especially when taken together, than anything that unites them.
...

Am I an anarchist or not? Like Feral Faun and others, I have shuffled by counterposing “anarchy” and “anarchism”. Even if the distinction catches on, what to call the respective parties? This is what I suggest. Let the anarchy-ists call themselves anarchs, a word whose first known appearance — in Milton's Paradise Lost! — antedates anarchist by nine years. It's better because, like the corresponding distinction of monarch from monarchist, it designates not what we believe but what we are, insofar as our power permits: powers unto ourselves.
...

Too often have the anarchists lectured me to shun “feuds” and “in-fighting” the better to fight “the real enemy,” by which they mean some conveniently remote abstraction such as capitalism or the state.
...

“The real enemy” is the totality of physical and mental constraints by which capital, or class society, or statism, or the society of the spectacle expropriates everyday life, the time of our lives. The real enemy is not an object apart from life. It is the organization of life by powers detached from it and turned against it. The apparatus, not its personnel, is the real enemy. But it is by and through the apparatchiks and everyone else participating in the system that domination and deception are made manifest. The totality is the organization of all against each and each against all. It includes all the policemen, all the social workers, all the office workers, all the nuns, all the op-ed columnists, all the drug kingpins from Medellin to Upjohn, all the syndicalists and all the situationists.

This isn't rhetoric to me; it informs my choices. It implies that I can expect to find authoritarian actions, opinions and personalities among anarchists as elsewhere. “Comrades” are not my comrades — nor am I, at my worst, my own comrade — insofar as they or I behave like “the real enemy”. There is no real enemy apart from human agency.

And what better place for authoritarians to nest than among anarchists who are so easily taken in by labels, so easily dazzled by slick production values, and so easily confused by the facts?
...

If anarchists are capable of authoritarian attitudes and ideological incoherence, I should no more hail one as a comrade, sight unseen, than I would a state trooper or used-car dealer. The label is not a warranty. An important reason for my 1985 disclaimer of anarchism was to forstall any claims on my loyalty or for exemption from criticism on the basis that “we” are on the same side. A real comrade would welcome critique.

Talk of my “feuds” is usually foolishness. While there is no ultimate separation of personal from political, especially if you are as political a person as I am, predominantly personal quarrels find no place in this book. An argument does not become a feud just because I take it past the mutual monolog stage or the other guy starts calling me names. Ideologues who lack the ability or maturity to defend their opinions in depth should keep them to themselves, especially if they publish magazines.
...

The proper measure of the value of my words is not the stature of my subjects. They don't have to be important to be useful for a change.

Don't get me wrong, Bob Black is still a prick... he's an articulate prick, however.

I said that I'd post this, but than I didn't... so here it is.

How do Elephants Make Love?: The Narrative Mechanics of Political Courtship

I'm wrapping up my final paper for Race and Ethnicity, discussing coalition building, the GOP's attempts at recruiting black voters, and likening it to romantic narratives.

I just thought of my title...



I'll post it to my writing blog either later today or tomorrow


Got to get back to work...

going to bed at 8:30am...

yay finals week.

I had my doctors appointment this morning for my ankle and the increasing pain I've been getting. The prognosis, as expected, isn't great. While all the hardware in my ankle (3 bolts and a handful of screws and staples) is where it should be and therefore doesn't need to be removed, and the fused ankle itself healed really well from my surgery five years ago, my 'foot knuckles' (which have an official name I've already forgotten) have been carrying the load an ankle would normally take. Five years of this has made them arthritic, hence the increased pain similar to what I was experiencing when I was 10 and my actual ankle started to become arthritic.

While I expected this would happen eventually, it doesn't make the experience any easier. All they can do is try to immobilize the arthritic joints, but this shifts 'ankle duty' to the next closest joint, eventually leading that next joint to become arthritic as well: my knee, my hip, and eventually my back and spine. Basically, as long as I'm walking, I'm doing damage to something, and this will only stop once I've reached the point where I can no longer walk. The thought of using a wheelchair for the rest of my life terrifies me. I know it seems stupid, but I hate being so visibly handicapped; my past experience has been that people treat you differently to the point of it becoming patronizing. This isn't even mentioning the innumerable ways in which day to day life becomes more difficult...

for now, they're referring me to a pain management clinic so I can regain access to painkillers, getting me a prosthetic support that inserts into a shoe to immobilize the arthritic joint, and recommending I get new shoes with a rocker bottom and , if need be, a carbon fiber shoe insert to limit motion even further.

this concludes my medical update. As a side note, however, I would like to state for the record that the rise in popularity of the term 'differently-abled' is bullshit; although arguably meant to empower by not suggesting deviance from a normative standard, it ignores the ways in which the handicapped are disadvantaged--'disabled', if you will--by architecture, community structures, social conventions, and so on. I'll accept the term 'differently-abled' when being a cripple stops negatively impacting nearly every aspect of my life.

I must admit I'm freaking out a bit. I've got 75 more pages to write in the next month and a half, and I haven't been writing well lately. really really slow. like, 1 page every 3 hours slow. that's slow... I'm having trouble forming (relevant) arguments for the topics under discussion.

Part of this is me worrying about my mom, I'm sure. she has cancer, and although it was deemed very treatable, that has been complicated by a bad reaction to one of the chemo drugs. if she keeps taking it, 20% chance of a heart attack/death. the other option, which they have no idea of how well it'll work, has some nasty side effects: radiation burns, possible hearing loss, kidney failure, etc... none sound like particularly good options, and I'm worried.

I'm debating selecting a class to request an incomplete in, and then trying my damnedest to not use it. I don't want to use it, but it would give me an extra week or two to get 10-20 pages done, which would certainly be helpful. i don't know...

thats all for now. time for a smoke and then bed. tomorrow I finish a paper, read 60 pages of poetry, write a response, and then write a 1 page bullshit assignment for another class. yay.

my ankle has been hurting a lot over the last month. Imagine someone stabbing a knife into your ankle when you take a step. It's like that, but doesn't happen all the time, so one moment I'll be walking fine and then the next my ankle gives out beneath me, causing me to pause wherever I am, mutter obscenities, and then limp back to a sitting position. I have to get this looked at before I get off my mother's insurance, so I called my old orthopedic place and they said that I need a referral because it has been so long. I then called my doctor up in central maine, and spent 20 minutes pushing buttons just to be sent to a answering machine. Since past experiences have shown they dont call me back, I then called USM health services. Not only can they refer me to my orthopedic place, they can also give me a list of doctors in southern maine accepting new patients so I don't have to deal with my old doctor anymore.

health services is totally worth the $50 usm makes me pay.

In an effort to calm my growing sense of panic about graduating, I'm looking at grad schools again. Another aspect of my panic is what I'm going to do for work next year, but I'll figure that out later. Tonight, the school I've been looking at is...

Northwestern University
Location: Chicago, IL

Area of concentration: Political Theory, with an "interdisciplinary cluster" of Critical Theory (this means that, although I'd be in the poli sci department, I can have a minor concentration outside of poli sci)

Degree: PhD (MA included)

Funding: Guaranteed five years of funding, provided one stays in good academic standing (gpa greater than 3.0). I'm still trying to figure out if this is a full tuition waver and stipend or what.

acceptance rate: unknown

Other good things: Statistics requirements waved for theory students, Bonnie Honig, no language requirement, summer language programs available should I wish to do it.

downsides: cost of living would be high.

thoughts are always welcome.

I have to write a paper for Race and Ethnicity in American Politics, and I have a general topic in mind, but I just thought of another that would be really good, although less relevant to my personal interests

I'm thinking about writing a paper on Michael Steele, symbolic representation, and his recent attempts at making the Republican party appealing to "urban-suburban hip hop culture." The funny paper title I thought of is "Because He Can't, He Won't, and He Don't Stop."

here is a video of Chuck D and Michael Steele on DL Hughley. not only is it funny, but it could theoretically carry this paper.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSuawzkKpuM

my favorite quote...
[starts at about 1:30]
Steele: "what struck me about hip hop, as a genre, as music, as whatever you want to call it--a culture--was the fact that you have guys like yourself, who come out of the projects, out off the street, ah, myself, I grew up on 8th street in DC, thats a whole different world from where I am right now, and the reality of it is you took that struggle...
Chuck D.: [interrupting] "I-I'm from Roosevelt, Long Island, it's not the projects. It's where Black people live.
Steele: "wh-where Black people live... [stuttering, with audience chuckling in the background]

also, Steele's pronouns are fascinating. He uses 'we' and 'our' whenever he's too close to the ropes.

this paper would write itself, which is one reason I'm thinking about not doing it.

FUCK YEAH!

http://www.hulu.com/voltron-defender-of-the-universe

I will be holding a Voltron marathon during next week's break

"Captain America Theater of War: America the Beautiful" is the biggest piece of sentimental crap I've ever read. While I'm not a fan of Paul Jenkins, I never actively disliked him until now. It's a one-shot with two stories in it, both with the same 'honor old soldiers' message. It must take effort to make a character as boring as he makes Cap.

It's on, Jenkins. Stick to writing comics I don't give a shit about, and I might forgive you for sucking so hard someday.

instead of Beginning French II, I am now taking Literature of the Early Republic. This is in line with my long-standing belief that the french language can go fuck itself.

it'll be more interesting and about the same amount work, since I'm so fucking terrible at french. Lit. of the Early Republic will also allow me to explore my current interests a bit more before I spot another shiny object I want to investigate.

other than that, I'm taking INtro to Cultural Studies, American History 1900-present, Politics of Race and Ethnicity, and Hate Violence in Contemporary US. None of these are particularly demanding. Hate Violence may be the most depressing class ever, however.

so evidently my mom has colon cancer...

...more on that as it develops.

relatively Christmas-y. This is round 3 in the effort to fix my camera that broke back in 2003. its a very nice camera, although I learned that when you have the neck strap on 95% of my time, you should make that a full 100% of the time so you do not let go of it and smash it on the ground, requiring a new lens and various other repairs that are difficult to identify all at once. Every time one thing is fixed I find another problem that keeps it from working, and if it is still broken when I get it back I'm going to be beyond pissed.

I'm headed back to Portland tomorrow. I miss having my own space, and I miss having a good coffee shop I can do work in. I'm painfully close to finishing Cap... one more regular section and concluding section that also covers notes for further study (in which I plan on rattling off the dozen other interesting papers that I could have written, and which would have probably been easier, but instead went with the confusing and hard to communicate one). I'm trying to tell myself that it doesn't have to be 'shit-your-pants fantastic', but with the amount of time I've put into this I'd be really disappointed if I now treated it like just another paper that I need to finish. At this point, however, it very much is...

so that is all, I suppose.

I just got internet back. I don't have to take my American Philosophy final, because I did so well on my final paper for that class, and he has given me an A for the semester. I Finished my Earth Liberation Front paper. It turned out okay, although I would have liked to spend a bit more time on certain aspects of it. When I propose 4 paper topics, however, three of which before the official assignment was given out, and the last of which I only had 3 weeks to research and work on, it was about as good as one can expect from a student with a full work load.

looking forward to break... I will be glad to set this semester behind me, because walking into it already behind due to summer made it really fucking suck.

I have two finals left and a paper. I don't know what to write my paper about. Every paper I come up with reads like a Political Theory tragedy. Medieval political thought is fucking depressing.

I won't have internet unil friday. All the unsecured networks dried up which means I have to start paying for it again... damn selfish assholes. sometimes I can pick up the university network from my apartment, hwever, which is how this is being posted.

I'm on top of my game for once at the end of the semester. Got plenty to do, but I'm not overwhelmed yet. I wrote 1/3 of a 20 page paper today, which is pretty fucking good since I woke up at 2pm and it isn't due until thursday. I have one other paper after that, and three finals, which might be the most finals I've ever had in one semester. Also got to finish Cap, of course, which keeps on having to take a backseat whenever I get rolling with it due to my current workload.

I decided it was time to call it a day on my ecoterrorism paper when I wrote the following:

ELF actions are too distinct from other actions labeled as terroristic: they are too loosely organized, too non-violent, too inclusive in their conceptualized-Us, and frankly, too concurrent in their environmental concerns, at least today, to require the media coverage that terrorism seeks to exploit. Torching SUVs to let people know that we are in danger of an ecological meltdown is like blowing up a planetarium to let people know Pluto is no longer a planet; there are those who still resist both assertions, but both statements are quickly becoming socially accepted conventions. Giving ELF-ers an iota of credit requires us to acknowledge that the act must be serving a different purpose in an era when there is collective recognition of a problem, but a seemingly absent collective action.

I should probably replace that middle sentence with one a bit more serious. I do think I should start a 'Pluto is no longer a planet' terrorist group, however.

It would amuse me if, because I jokingly suggested starting a terrorist group, my journal entry is flagged and someone at the FBI had to spend 5 minutes figuring out if this 'Pluto is No Longer a Planet' terrorist group could be a threat to national security. Lock your doors... PiNLaP is on the loose.