A relevant blog post by Greg Laden here:
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/04/cia_exemption_is_the_right_thi.php
He says "the CIA exemption is the right thing to do" but the reasons he gives are... interesting.
"What happened is that a bunch of out of control cowboys (from Texas, I might add) got to be in charge of the most powerful military and intelligence system in the world and acted terribly irresponsibly.
Yes, you have the issue of getting a nice flock of canaries working, but these guys are not the only possible canaries. There is a great distance between CIA grunts and the POTUS. Flocks and flocks of canaries.
Then, there is the issue that a liberal African American Democratic community organizer has to get his ducks in a row, regarding how he manages this government that he is in charge of. Just because disobeying the chain of command is treasonous does not mean it won't happen. The military is still full of selfish unpatriotic Yahoos (mainly from Texas, as it happens) who would stick it to Obama in a second. He needs to build loyalty in key places. Let him do it."
Emphasis mine. In other words: I agree to not prosecute CIA agents who obeyed criminal orders under the previous administration, and the CIA agrees to not disobey my orders now.
Using insects to inflict pain and/or fear in detainees? That's straight out of the Khmer Rouge bag of tricks...
As I said in Boing Boing comments, I find the "translation error" explanation hard to believe. Being French myself, I know full well that "adulte", the French equivalent of English "adult", doesn't mean "gay", "queer" or "GLBTQ". It means "with strong sexual content", period.
Even if one French speaking employee at Amazon.fr f*cked up last week, it wouldn't explain why books such as Heather Has Two Mommies were unranked. Or why it began in February...
BTW, is it the 2nd or 3rd explanation given by Amazon?
@ Serge #31: Maybe the alder sap thing was getting old...
@ PNH: And some of them are more toxic: explanations that AIDS/HIV isn't real, or isn't transmitted by sexual contact, or can't actually be transmitted between heterosexuals, or was brewed up by secret government laboratories as an attempt at genocide against the black man.
How could anyone sensible believe this stuff?
Maybe because, in the real world, the United States Government was conducting secret medical experiments on unknowing black subjects--experiments in which the subjects were deliberately not told that they were infected with a lethal disease--as recently as 1972?
In other countries too. Google "Dr. Death", "Wouter Basson" and "Project Coast"...
As late as 1993, in Apartheid era South Africa, Basson was the head of a state-sponsored research project into chemical and biological warfare designed to target Blacks.
Abi: "The problem with the Hillerman books (much as I love them) is that all of the flaws of Navajo society are portrayed as products of the intrusion of the white world onto a previously intact community."
I didn't get that impression. Sure, Hillerman expressed a lot of sympathy for Navajo, Hopi and Zuni cultures, and was ready to point to the flaws of the white anglo civilization. But he also showed some negative aspects of Navajo life: his heroes often come across problems stemming from the belief in witchcraft, for instance. Not only the murders in Skinwalkers, but also instances of people being driven out of their community because they are suspected of witchcraft (or they fear they will be and flee).
And then, there is the character of the boy in The Dance-hall of the Dead, a Navajo who is not happy in the Navajo world and want to become a Zuni, because he doesn't like living a long way away from other people with only his immediate family. He feels lonely and envies the life of his Zuni friend in the "anthill at the center of the world" (as they call they pueblo). When he encounters the boy, Joe Leaphorn reflects that it must be difficult to be a Navajo if you are a very sociable kind of person.
Congratulations, everybody! You all made history.
"African witchcraft curses against McCain and Palin"
Huh? Isn't Palin the one who believe in witchcraft? IIRC, there's a video of her getting "anti-witch" blessings from an African preacher...
Oh, right. The crazies, projecting again.
Meanwhile, a certain "anti-American" group endorsed McCain:
Al-Qaeda supporters back John McCain for president
(Well, kinda. They certainly would welcome the event, for sure.)
Via Greg Laden.
Every time I come across the "maverick" nickname for McCain, what jumps to my mind is the phrase loose cannon...
@ Liz Ditz: thanks for the Field Negro link. Good blog. And I like the side "ads", he he...
Vin Suprynowicz seems the kind of guy who enjoys killing sprees – by proxy.
@ chris y (188): "open to a reasonable and polite request from Sarkoszy"?
Make no mistake, Sarkozy is in a very unconfortable position, here. He's trying to be both an American satellite and a commercial partner of Russia. (It doesn't help that when he's acting as a European diplomat, his policy is "France first". Other Europeans don't seem to appreciate that...)
At best, the guy is going to listen politely to Medvedev and relay Russia's terms to the Georgians and their OTAN allies, helping negociations along the road to the statu quo ante, only more comfortable for Russia.
At worst, we'll see more of Sarkozy's now well-known bluster and gaffes, and cringe a lot, hoping that it ends up only in a shouting match, not actual shouting. The EU have a window of opportunity here as a go-between, but failure to do so might result in a kind of new cold war between the USian and Russian "blocs".
#117:
(beith-sub-sub-prime) Books obviously written by con-men, hawking "debt cures" to people caught in mortgage crisis.
¹ Novels you loan to your younger sister in the hope to make a convert to your favorite author, and which she returns promply with scathing sisterial comments.
² Novels you loan to your younger sister in the hopes of making a convert, and consequently never get back.
³ Novels your mother think you will like (if only she remembered you're not 15 any more...)
Not to mention (with apologies to the ghost of Jorge Luis Borges):
(*) Those written with a fine paintbrush, (**) those belonging to the emperor and (***) those included in the present classification.
Next month's story:
93-Year-Old Debut Authoress in Legal Battle with Daughter-in-Law: Who Keeps the House?
"It was my idea in the first place," moans DIL of famous author. "I payed the publisher, I advanced the cash for the house, I thought up the publicity angle and all that! Now she could at least will the house to me! But no, it goes to charities for old people and writer's cats!"
(Now, I'll go wash my imagination with bleach...)
(alif) Novels with footnotes; among which:
(alif prime) Novels whose footnotes have footnotes. Among which:
(alif bis) Novels whose footnotes are having a chat.
#29 :
With a subcategory: (v.1) novels which make the reader sympathize despite herself with some very, very upsetting characters.
Thinking about C.J. Cherryh, here...
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