I have driven up to New Hampshire a few times over the last few weeks in order to support
my candidate. This is stuff that I have not done since I was a teenager: stuffing envelopes, making calls, writing letters. The last time I was doing this for a woman running for a mayorship in southern California. At this level campaign are both compelling and boring. Each person to whom you talk or write could potentially be affected, either way, by what you say and how you say it. On one of my first few calls I thought I would be smart, telling to a woman that the campaign would not bother her, that the campaign was only interesting in knowing about her voting tendencies. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It sounded to her as if I were intruding on her rights to keep her politics secret. And I did not make the same mistake again.
Most of my time at the campaign has been consumed with letter writing. If my phone calling created a mini-disaster, my "endorsement letter" was popular enough that the office manager wanted to turn it into a template for other, less articulate endorsers. He even explored ways to mass produce my original, but he could not get the copies to look as if they had been handwritten. So what do I do when I go up? Write, and write, and write and write and write (no, it is not the Itchy and Scratchy Show.) The campaign wants handwritten letters in order to add more intimacy to the message. Meanwhile, my hands are falling off.
Posted by:
Nathanael / 1:02 PM :
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Monday, December 22, 2003
Check out this website:
The Fantastic in Art and Fiction, images taken from the Cornell Library collection concerning "fantastic knowledge" that would have appealed to someone like Borges or Calvino. Very cool stuff.
Posted by:
Nathanael / 5:45 PM :
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WMD: Why Libya has nothing to do with Iraq
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There are some things that really get me going--particularly how the left, through its ignorance of foreign affairs, lets the right take credit for things.
Example:
the disarming of WMD in Libya.
Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi has been trying to distance himself from Pan-Arab politics since the mid-1990s. He has seen that it is a destructive politics that have hurt Libya through infighting between the Arab states, and the support of terrorism exposed Libya in ways that Gadhafi regrets. (Not having USSR supplying him with weapons also helped.) His tack has been to withdraw Libya from Pan-Arabism and insert it into the African unity movement. Gadhafi is now one of the most prominent spokesman for African unity, and he was instrumental in getting the North Africa states to join the African Union. To this end, Gadhafi has been attempting to repair his credibility in the world--hence the Lockerbie settlement--and to reach out to other leaders. Drawing closer to former British possessions in Africa gave Tony Blair the opportunity to negotiate with Gadhafi (and for Blair, some leverage in UK-Zimbabwe relations.) The disarming of WMD is simply a natural progression of the currents in international diplomacy.
According to Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
... this is a success that spans administrations and spans governments. As you just [T]his is something that goes back over 10 years of international pressure on the Qaddafi regime. Over the last six or seven years, Qaddafi has steadily moved towards Europe, waiting to integrate, focused on a program of economic development for Libya.
Tony Blair should be congratulated: he took advantage of multilateral diplomacy and the African Union, neither of which the Bush administration supports, in order to achieve disarmament without costly warfare.
Posted by:
Nathanael / 12:50 PM :
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This year's survey took me a little longer to write because of my bad memory and because there are a few more films I want to judge.
Politics
- Person of the Year: Jacques Chirac was the primary defender of the international system. He gave Democrats a position other than "the economy sucks.". He caused much ankle and knee biting over at Ministry of Minor Perfidy. AND HE HAD THE GALL TO MAKE A PASS AT LAURA BUSH (I am not sure if that is classy or creepy.)
- Asshole of the Year: Donald Rumsfeld advocated for an unnecessary war, bent intelligence in order to fool the American public, designed a half-hearted strategy that failed to plan for the post-war period, and has attempted to redefine the English language and its use.
- Scandal: In a year with so many, the debacle over redistricting in Texas epitomized the perversion of American democracy at the hands of neo-conservatives and Texas republicans.
Sports
- Best Athlete: It was David Beckham's year.
- Best Sports Team: USC should be #1 (as a proud Bruin, I still think they suck.)
- Most Memorable Sports Moment: The uncorking of Sammy Sosa's bat.
Film/Television
- Best Film: Aki Kurismaki's Man without a past
- Best Documentary: Strange Fruit, about Abe Meeropol aka Lewis Allen, the communist and Jew who wrote the song about lynching and who adopted the sons of the Rosenbergs.
- Best Adaptation of Literature to Film: (holding out until I can see a few obvious films)
- Notable "Re-discovery" in Film: The films of John Ford, especially Rio Grande, which used John Wayne effectively by limiting his dialogue.
- Best TV show (comedy/drama/fiction):The Daily Show (Jon Stewart did warn John Edwards that declaring his candidacy on the show probably did not count).
- Best TV show (information/reality/non-fiction): What not to wear
- Most Memorable TV Moment: Josh Gracin (singer/marine) on American Idol, as he was chosen to be "safe" above Rubin Studdard in the round of five.
Music
- Best Album: Equilibrium by Matthew Shipp
- Best Song/Single: "Seven Nation Army" by White Stripes
- Favorite Live Show: I went to so few that I ought to disqualify myself, but I will pick local band Cyclub at Harry's in Northampton.
- Notable "Re-discovery" in Music: Organ music, especially the sacred works of Olivier Messiaen.
Literature
I tried really hard to stay on top of current literature this year, and all I discovered was that it is really hard to do so.
- Best Fiction Book (Since January 2002): Le Non de Klara by Soazig Aaron. (My current read could also be a contender).
- Best Non-fiction Book (Trade) (Since January 2002): George Crile's Charlie Wilson's War, about US support of Afghani rebels in the 1980s.
- Best Academic Book (Since January 2002): Griff nach dem Westen.
- Best Short Story: "The Weight of Words" by Jeffrey Ford, in Levianthan 3
- Notable "Re-discovery" in Literature: The Viking sagas, especially The Saga of Egil.
Guilty Pleasures
- Album that I refuse to admit that I like: Joss Stone, Soul Sessions, who will probably sound like Britney Spears on her next album.
- TV show I watch in secret: True Hollywood Stories.
Culture
- Best Restaurant Meal: Apple Tree, Taos.
- Favorite Personal Moment: Climbing through Tent Rocks in NM
- Favorite Website: Jeff Vandermeer's Fantastic Metropolis
- Gracious Celebrity: David Beckham.
- Undeserved Celebrity: Paris Hilton.
Will be found guilty/innocent
- Michael Jackson: guitly
- Kobe Bryant: guilty
- Scott Peterson: innocent--but he probably did it.
- Rush Limbaugh: probably innocent, but I am crossing my fingers ...
[wic] In spite of rumors to the contrary, I have sent out this survey twice in the last three years.
