On the right's inability to answer Cindy Sheehan

In this column, Jonah Goldberg argues that the left is constructing a Cindy Sheehan who is beyond argument, immune from criticism, because of the continual reassertions of (1) her status as a mother of a fallen soldier, and (2) her right to speak, a right Goldberg says is beside the point if what she says is wrong.

Clever column, but, to borrow Golberg's own phrasing, utterly beside the point. It's not that the right exceeds its moral or political authority in criticizing Sheehan. It's that nothing the right has said actually addresses the core symbolic and political significance of her public argument. Maybe Goldberg is partially correct in that elements of Sheehan's message are above argument. If so, I'd say that this simply gives the right, and particularly supporters of the ill-conceived invasion and occuptation of Iraq, a strong and bitter dose of their own medicine.

Several right wingers have been harping on Sheehan's comments about Israel's undue influence in U.S. foreign policy, calling her an anti-semite, adding elements of interpretation to her utterance that exceed to record levels the limits of common sense interpretation. They're having a hard time making such innuendo stick, especially since so many Jewish leftists say the same thing. See, once you accept that, and once you press for a link between criticism of Israel and anti-semitism, the debate becomes extremely complex, and you have to dredge the sewars of right wing bloggery to find all the idiots who say there are "Jewish anti-semites" and argue that derisively using the word "neocon" marks your participation in the secret language of Jew-haters.

For the record, I wish she hadn't made the Israel reference. I don't think it's good form, and it's really beside the point. For me, the role of Israel is not a central component of criticism of U.S. foreign policy (capitalists and imperialists come in all nationalities), and talk like this is all-too-easily misappropriated, as we are seeing in this case.

But a couple of "on the other hands." First, the charge of anti-semitism will not stick, and will only give those ultra-righties who thrive on making such ill-connected accusations the opportunity to look narrow-minded and irrational in the public sphere once again. You want to make the argument, with a straight face, that if I criticize Wolfowitz that means I'm anti-semitic? Sigh. Fine, knock yourself out, asswipe.

[I am imagining here that I'm talking to Omri Ceron, who should know better, but it could also apply to the logic-deprived followers of David Horowitz. If I am talking to Omri, imagine that I said "asswipe" with a loving smile...]

I'll take my friend Scooter's word on this:

I actually left a synagogue-- mid Rosh Hashanah services if I recall-- when the rabbi noted that good Jews have to support Israel. That was around the time that they started sticking the "we stand with Israel" slogan on the mailings. Trust me: That kind of crap pisses off more Jews than Sheehan's questioning of US policy toward Israel.

Second, a final and important counterpoint: We should not forget that the right really gets off on criticizing a number of black-led African states and even arguably and occasionally relies on some potentially offensive assumptions about black Africans in doing so. But they answer charges of "racism" with characteristic defensive outrage.

Sheehan IV

Here is Ralph Nader's powerful letter to Cindy Sheehan, documenting Bush's pattern of refusing to meet with, or listen to, anyone outside of his small circle.

The false interpretation of Sheehan's initial meeting with Bush, as well as the distorted and irrelevant swipes on her character that Drudge and Malkin successfully spread early on, have made their way onto every two-bit pro-war blog on the internet. This is all they have, folks: distortions, and the ability to spread them faster than we can answer them, to bloggers willing to uncritically tow the line. Just remember, they are doing this because they are scared shitless. This isn't going away; Sheehan's basic argument is, as I've said before, irrefutable and universal: Bush and the neocons are responsible for creating the conditions in which Casey Sheehan, and many, many other young people, needlessly died. This is true even if, in some general sense, the war was a good idea. This is true even if Bush hadn't lied. This is true even though Saddam Hussein had to go. That's what's going to kill all the last gasping breaths of support for Bush's execution of this war. So it's understandable that the warborgs are doing the very best they can, and doing so by repeating distortions often enough that they'll be accepted as truth.

Ben Johnson over at the uber reactionary Front Page Magazine has decided to try his hand at what every other warborg has failed to do: successfully assassinate Sheehan's character. His arguments:

(1) Casey Sheehan voluntarily re-enlisted

Say it with me, folks: big...friggin...deal. Cindy Sheehan has the right to be against this war and to testify (Johnson calls it "exploit" but that's a thuggish rhetorical choice) of her unique love for her son in order to make her argument. She's her own moral, political agent.

(2) Cindy Sheehan associates with "far left" and "anti-Semitic" figures

We know she's "far left" of Ben Johnson, Front Page Magazine, and Dracula. Johnson epitomizes the McCarthyist style that has made Front Page the irritating and irrelevant rag it is today by listing all the associations and associations of associations Sheehan's been affiliated with (surprised you missed the fact that her plumber's wife's cousin was in the ACLU, Ben!) over the past several years. But anti-Semitic? Johnson gets to that, far enough down in the article he hopes you won't bother to read it and just take his word at the top...she (gasp) insulted Paul Wolfowitz, who's a "well-known Jewish conservative," therefore Sheehan MUST be anti-semitic. Wow, pretty weak sauce. She also says her son joined the military to protect America, not Israel. But given that many, many Jewish people are against many of Israel's policies, including those who perceive that the U.S. foreign policy is unwarrantedly beholden to Israel, linking this statement to racism is irresponsible and inexcusable, and is tantamount to accusing progressive people in general, both Jewish and gentile, of being anti-semitic. Wow, also pretty weak sauce, rendered weaker still when Johnson backhandedly admits the dubious nature of his interpretation.

3. Cindy Sheehan has changed her story.

Nope. See all the stuff I've posted thus far, follow the links, read the original story. You will truly be amazed at how far the warborgs have gone to take the initial story out of context. You'll see, once again, how sad and desperate they are.

4. Others in her family disagree with her.

Ditto and irrelevant.

Sheehan III

"if bush and jesus were really so tight, he’d invite [Sheehan] to the ranch and wash her feet. know what i’m sayin’?" ("spike," commenting on another blog)

David Rovics has a new song for Cindy Sheehan at his website:

Cindy's got some questions
And so does everyone
Because she is every mother
And he was every mother's son

Whether Cindy Sheehan changed her story is extremely doubtful. It's much less doubtful that she changed her emotions about the meeting. Now here's where the attacks from the righties get confusing. First, they say she had an anti-war agenda even before Casey Sheehan went to Iraq, certainly before he died. But then she magically lost this agenda upon commenting on her initial meeting with the President. Then (presumably in response to prodding from anti-war groups), Sheehan went back to being militantly anti-war and anti-Bush. As I said at the very beginning of this discussion, it is impossible to know know exactly what every single agent feels in every instance in this episode (or any other). By focusing their rhetorical strategy on assigning such motives, conservatives force themselves into defending not merely a flip-flop theory, but a trip-flop theory.

But the important thing here, is that there is really no strong evidence that she changed her story, while there is very clear evidence that the story was quickly distorted (and the distorted version aggressively spread) by the right's spinmeisters. Here's Media Matters getting to the bottom of it:

Drudge...took Sheehan's quotes from The Reporter out of context in falsely claiming a shift in her position. The June 24, 2004, Reporter article also quoted Sheehan expressing her misgivings about Bush and the Iraq war:
"We haven't been happy with the way the war has been handled," Cindy said. "The president has changed his reasons for being over there every time a reason is proven false or an objective reached."
The 10 minutes of face time with the president could have given the family a chance to vent their frustrations or ask Bush some of the difficult questions they have been asking themselves, such as whether Casey's sacrifice would make the world a safer place. ...the family decided against such talk, deferring to how they believed Casey would have wanted them to act....Sheehan was not referring to her meeting with Bush as "the gift the president gave us." She was actually referring to the trip to Seattle, as Reporter staff writer Tom Hall noted in an August 9 article responding to Drudge...Sheehan said sharing their story with those families was rewarding...Drudge included that quote in his Monday morning report, but didn't explain that it referred to sharing time with her family, not the president."
Reporter editor Diane Barney also responded to Drudge in an August 9 column, in which she said that Sheehan's positions on Bush and the war have not changed since June 2004. "We don't think there has been a dramatic turnaround. Clearly, Cindy Sheehan's outrage was festering even then," Barney wrote. "In ensuing months, she has grown more focused, more determined, more aggressive. ... We invite readers to revisit the story -- in context -- on our Web site and decide for themselves." ...
Throughout the day on August 8, Drudge's false story needed little time to spread to conservative weblogs:
Drudge posted the Sheehan item on August 8 at 10:11 am ET.
Right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin posted the item on her weblog one hour later, at 11:22 am ET.
At 12:40 pm ET, the Drudge story appeared on C-Log, the weblog of the conservative news and commentary website Townhall.com.
At 2:33 pm ET, MooreWatch.com posted the story.
At 3:23 pm ET, William Quick of DailyPundit.com posted the story.

What is particularly depressing for the warborgs is that even if their version of events were 100% true, it wouldn't make Bush and the neocons any better at telling the truth or managing a war.

The President has been forced to respond, in some respectable way, to Sheehan (more evidence that this is a no-lose issue for the anti-war movement and, I'd add, an inevitable outcome of a criminal war conducted in a society with at least some semblence of democratic checks and balances). I will address some of the President's specific points below:

“In recent days, we have seen again that the path to victory in the war on terror will include difficult moments,” the president said near the end of his speech. “Our nation grieves the death of every man and woman we lose in combat, and our hearts go out to the loved ones who mourn them. Yet, even in our grief, we can be confident in the future, because the darkness of tyranny is no match for the shining power of freedom.”

Now, many have commented, both for better and worse, that the power of Sheehan's protest is emotional. I think it's slightly more than that: It's a deconstruction (forgive the term) of the emotional manipulation Bush and the warborgs have repeatedly deployed to exploit 9-11 and the tragedy of war for their own political ends. Dana Cloud has written of the emotionalized closure of the public sphere and the reliance of such closure on assumptions of appropriate behavior by women and mothers. What Bush is doing in the quote above is simply feeding the link to the criticism Sheehan is enacting.

“So we will honor the fallen by completing the mission for which they gave their lives, and by doing so we will ensure that freedom and peace prevail.”

Again, shallow repetition of what has been said again and again. Sheehan's response: What is this mission or noble cause, in the face of your Administration's lies about the reasons we went into Iraq? In the face of your refusal to adequately fund this allegedly vital mission, placing uniformed working people in harm's way? What kind of freedom and peace will prevail based on such lies and inadequacies?

“We're hunting down the terrorists and training the security forces of a free Iraq so Iraqis can defend their own country,” he said. “Our approach can be summed up this way: As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down. And when that mission of defeating the terrorists in Iraq is complete, our troops will come home to a proud and grateful nation.”

As he is prone to do, Bush lifted the "stand up/stand down" quote from an earlier speech, the one he gave at Fort Bragg. And like everything else he says, each sentence and turn of phrase raises more questions. Why do you get to now pretend that this was the reason we went into Iraq? Why do you get to "sever" out of past dubious justifications? What of the fact that our presence there has caused the very terrorism we are now fighting, just as US geopolitical manuevering created Saddam Hussein and sanctioned his evil in the first place? Why must these men and women whose very deaths you invoke as justifications for their mission be sacrificed again and again as pawns of a continuous cycle of hegemony, arrogance, and inevitable blowback? And even granting you every benefit of the doubt, why haven't you made their safety (or the health of ex-soldiers) a top priority? Bush just repeats the same tired slogans over and over, which may explain why as many as 6 in 10 surveyed Americans are opposed to the war.

But he closed the speech this way: “The terrorists cannot defeat us on the battlefield. The only way they can win is if we lose our nerve. That will not happen on my watch. Withdrawing our troops from Iraq prematurely would betray the Iraqi people, and would cause others to question America's commitment to spreading freedom and winning the war on terror.”

Ah, how original. If we question the war, the terrorists win. We're spreading freedom (not creating more Husseins and Bin Ladens) Anyone else getting tired of this sad excuse for a President?

The stumbling conservative response to Cindy Sheehan

Let's see...how can I put this succinctly?

People have a right to change their minds. Likewise, people have a right to align themselves with other people and organizations in an effort to promote particular political views. Pointing out that Sheehan has done these things is an utterly meaningless, and purely ad hominem political attack. The fact that conservatives are reduced to these two stellar arguments, that they keep repeating them over and over in a sing-songy, lecturing-the-kindergarteners tone, says all you need to know about the battle between an angry, critical-minded mother and the cynical, content-free war-borgs she is confronting.

To be fair, the range of choices for the anti-Sheehanites is pretty narrow. It's either repeat the above mentioned mantras, or call her names. Apparently, few conservatives see a reasoned defense of the war, delivered through the lens of unconditional respect for Sheehan, to be an option on the rhetorical table. While you might think that the name-calling would be none too appealing given that it will inevitably make Sheehan look better and the war-borgs look worse, this hasn't stopped neo-con David Frum from calling Sheehan an "anti-war crazy," Tony Snow from saying on his radio show that Sheehan is psychologically disturbed, O'Reilly from calling her a tool of the vast leftist conspiracy and even hinting that her behavior bordered on treason (see above--this is an issue of political association which matters not one iota in assessing her arguments or intentions), Michelle Malkin from referring to Sheehan's "crazy accusations,", or this inarticulate keeper of the "Men's News Daily" from accusing Sheehan of crying "crocodile tears" over her son.

Once again, a woman who does something like this must be mentally disturbed or a stooge. Above all, she will never be, can never be, a respectable participant in an argument with multiple sides. That the right cannot fathom treating her that way either means there really is no respectable argument for the way Bush started or conducted the invasion of Iraq, or that the war-borgs are just plain intellectually and morally bankrupt.

Oh, as I mentioned before, these idiots have one more line of attack: That many in Sheehan's family disagree with her, and that she is herself anti-war while her dead son was not. It's pretty easy to see the hidden sexist assumptions in actually treating these contingencies as arguments. The passive, faithful mother should defer to the judgment of the two men in her life, husband and warrior son. She should not assert her own, independent line of political thinking, for to do so would "dishonor" her son (The fact is, Sheehan has never claimed that her son was opposed to the war).

If she would just shut up and respect all those men--her son, her husband, her President, and her God--then she wouldn't be over in Crawford kicking up a fuss while Bush tries to enjoy his vacation and fundraisers.

Cindy Sheehan is asking some great questions

I want the Bush war apologists to keep talking smack on Cindy Sheehan. I want them to continue to call her crazy or a leftist pawn, because the more they do, the worse they look. I want that fluffy right-wing lightweight Michelle Malkin to turn her attack meter up all the way. I want alleged sexual predator Bill O'Reilly to continue to call her a disgrace. As Bush the Younger himself blathered out in a different context, bring it on!

As this brand new AP story reports, Ms. Sheehan is asking some very good questions:

August 12, 2005 CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush's motorcade, en route to a political fund-raiser near his ranch, passed Friday by the site of Cindy Sheehan's
Iraq war protest where more than 100 people had gathered to support her. Sheehan -- whose son, Casey, was killed five days after he arrived in Iraq last year at age 24 -- held a sign that read: "Why do you make time for donors and not for me?"
It's unclear whether Bush, riding in a black Suburban with tinted windows, looked at the demonstrators as his caravan passed. The motorcade did not stop. ...

Now, after all, if the worst anyone can say is that Cindy Sheehan is manipulating the public to promote her political cause, that just means she's used the same tactics as the Bush Administration.

But that's not really the point for the war apologists (honestly, are there really that many left who aren't drooling and crapping themselves?). The point is that Sheehan should either celebrate her son's life by supporting the war, or shut up and go back to the kitchen like a good mother. It angers them to no end that this new voice for peace is a female who (gasp) has an agenda of her own. But guess what? She can deal with her son's tragic, unnecessary death any way she wants, and the best part is that the more she is attacked, the worse the warmongers will look. It's really a no-lose deal for her or the anti-war constituency.

"But others in her family disagree with her!" screams the pro-war crowd.

Say it with me: Big...friggin...deal.

Besides, technically, her argument is correct: The President's bad choices are (at least partly) responsible for her son's death.

Jane Fonda and the Anti-War Movement

Some not-too-intellectually-reflective writers on the left are questioning whether Jane Fonda carries too much historical baggage to be an effective "representative" of the current anti-war movement.

Most of this blathering about whether "we" in the "peace movement" should find a better "representative" than Jane Fonda presupposes all sorts of unproven assumptions--that there is a unified peace movement (there isn't), that it has some kind of stable agent with the right or responsibility to approve or disapprove of people speaking in its name (it doesn't), etc.

There is also a self-importance in this kind of judgmental rhetoric that is really unwarranted, since peace movements have never stopped wars. Not to say that they couldn't, just that they never have.

The idea that any celebrity in the peace movement is uniquely more vulnerable than others to attacks from the pro-war crowd is equally unfounded--empirically so, in fact. You can be a veteran whose arms and legs were blown off in Vietnam and still be labeled unpatriotic and treasonous if you oppose Bush's war drive. Your character will be assassinated and your heroism will be questioned, and you'll lose elections, etc. What's at work here is far bigger and more endemic than the relative political vulnerability of one naive, privileged liberal celebrity--who has just as much right and responsibility as anyone else to speak out against this administration.

Hard Words, Soft Words, Crap Words

Nobody should be surprised that the Bush Administration is hypocritical and inconsistent, in this case by their toying with "softer" words to describe the war on terror after taking Democrats' "softer" words and concepts out of context both during the 2004 election campaign and in other venues of opportunism, most recently through Karl Rove's blathering. What I am surprised about is how many otherwise intelligent people fall for such rhetorical excrement every time Bush, Rove or others squeeze it out. Bush himself briefly called the struggle unwinnable and always (for obvious reasons) uses the language of permanence describing it. But the way they take the other side to task every time someone dares acknowledge any nuances and complexities is just disgusting. So here they are doing the same thing to themselves...

GRAPEVINE, Tex. (Aug. 3) - President Bush publicly overruled some of his top advisers on Wednesday in a debate about what to call the conflict with Islamic extremists, saying, "Make no mistake about it, we are at war."
...
In recent public appearances, Mr. Rumsfeld and senior military officers have avoided formulations using the word "war," and some of Mr. Bush's top advisers have suggested that the administration wanted to jettison what had been its semiofficial wording of choice, "the global war on terror."
In an interview last week about the new wording, Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, said that the conflict was "more than just a military war on terror" and that the United States needed to counter "the gloomy vision" of the extremists and "offer a positive alternative."
But administration officials became concerned when some news reports linked the change in language to signals of a shift in policy. At the same time, Mr. Bush, by some accounts, told aides that he was not happy with the new phrasing, a change of tone from the wording he had consistently used since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
It is not clear whether the new language embraced by other administration officials was adopted without Mr. Bush's approval or whether he reversed himself after the change was made. Either way, he planted himself on Wednesday firmly on the side of framing the conflict primarily in military terms and appeared intent on emphasizing that there had been no change in American policy. [The New York Times]

Former classmate and current birdchaser (as well as my strange political cousin) Rob Fergus provided these links concerning genetics and political orientation:

Here's the press release about the article on genetics and political orientations;
And the actual article itself:

Abstract:

We test the possibility that political attitudes and behaviors are the result of both environmental and genetic factors. Employing standard methodological
approaches in behavioral genetics—–specifically, comparisons of the differential correlations of the attitudes of monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins—–we analyze data drawn from a large sample of twins in the United States, supplemented with findings from twins in Australia. The results indicate that genetics plays an important role in shaping political attitudes and ideologies but a more modest role in forming party identification; as such, they call for finer distinctions in theorizing about the sources of political attitudes. We conclude by urging political scientists to incorporate genetic influences, specifically interactions between genetic heritability and social environment, into models of political attitude formation.

Hmm. Must sharpen Ockham's Razor. More on this later.

Apologies to Michael Berube

Yeah, that was kind of reactionary. My friends will tell you I get that way sometimes.

Maybe it's just that it was golf. You might try bowling. Anyway, try to remember when you were young and impetuous. As someone who also argues for the unionization of grad students and (at our fine institution) the custodial staff, I'd be more than happy to join you.

Letter to David with Thanks for Picture

"I am thinking this morning of the men in the mills and the factories; of the men in the mines and on the railroads. I am thinking of the women who for a paltry wage are compelled to work out their barren lives; of the little children who in this system are robbed of their childhood and in their tender years are seized in the remorseless grasp of Mammon and forced into the industrial dungeons, there to feed the monster machines while they themselves are being starved and stunted, body and soul. I see them dwarfed and diseased and their little lives broken and blasted because in this high noon of Christian civilization money is still so much more important than the flesh and blood of childhood. In very truth gold is god today and rules with pitiless sway in the affairs of men." (Eugene Debs, Statement to the Court, 1918)

I had these thoughts looking at my friend David's picture of himself with his father in front of Karl Marx's grave. "Workers of the world unite!" is prominent on the gravestone, appearing above and to the right of Dave's and his father's heads.

For me it just seems intuitively obvious that one might object to a system that even its most passionate and competent proponents admit "causes"* arbitrary harm to innocent people. Maybe all systems "cause" such harm, but as debaters say, a critique doesn't HAVE to be unique. The impact scenarios are unique, and now is certainly the time, but the "moral compulsion" against capitalism seems intuitively defensible. Not so much that I think people who support capitalism are all evil, but that Marx's ideas ought to at least be an accepted part of public political conversation because anyone in their right mind should be able to understand why others desire socialism, even (I know I've belabored the point) if one does not agree with them. Even if socialism is guilty of moral naivete (and I will argue well into the evening and morning why it is not guilty), the instinct and basic idea of social altruism is inherently, logically, and intuitively defensible, and should be communicated as such. That natural understanding sometimes expresses itself in ways which seem sentimental and "unscientific."

Eugene Debs "recognized" his "kinship with all living things"** -- "recognition" indicating both an arrived-upon conclusion and the acknowledgement of something...already there. More and more I think that moral opposition to capitalism, as imperfect as moral schemes are, is an indispensable way, for now, to establish a common space of argument for a socialist political project. Not merely because most other spaces of radical argument consciously or unconsciously point away from "socialism," or because, to a large extent, corporations own the very ground of public argument itself, although both of those observations are important. The main reason I find the moral-ethical argument important is that it contains an intuitive affirmation of human solidarity that one can understand even if one does not agree. This may be because dialectical materialism and socialist politics are fundamentally rational, so it's only natural they would also be intuitive. Altruism may (as has been reported before on this blog) be hardwired or evolutionary. But whatever the reason, we should express it as such, and be no more or less ashamed of its sentimentality than Debs was in that beautifully sentimental language, or of the simple grandeur of "Workers of the world, unite!"


* The capitalist would probably be more comfortable with the phrase "results in arbitrary harm," a concession that would mean more to them than it would cost us.

**"Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." (Eugene Debs, Statement to the Court, 1918)

Another Reason I Hate Golf

Here is Michael Berube's sad attempt at self-effacing humor and an explanation of why he plays golf all summer.

For two consecutive days, I did not revise my book manuscript or work on the copy-edited versions of a pair of new essays (they're sitting on my desk under a packet of golf tees). I did not get anywhere with the tenure cases I'm reviewing this summer -- or with the books I'm supposed to be reviewing.
Then again, I did birdie the hardest par four on the back nine, rolling in a 15-footer from the fringe (it was a devilish pin placement). So there's that.

This piece makes academics look pretty bad, ignorantly privileged, whiny, and trite. But class differences abound in academia. Those instructors and assistants who spend their summers teaching extra classes, to make ends meet, working second jobs, often because of 9-month contracts or just plain inadequate salaries, really aren't interested in Michael's golf scores or his complaints. Even tenured professors with large families often have a hard time of it, and despite his shallow attempts to vindicate professors' 60 hour work-weeks during the school year, Berube ignores the economic situations of those on whose backs he and his "Marxist" friends are playing their 18 holes. He can suck it.

Love and Death (1975)

Just saw it on IFC. It's been at least 15 years since I last saw it. I've forgotten how incredibly funny it is.

Some memorable lines:

Sonja: Judgment of any system, or a priori relationship or phenomenon exists in an irrational, or metaphysical, or at least epistemological contradiction to an abstract empirical concept such as being, or to be, or to occur in the thing itself, or of the thing itself.
Boris: Yes, I've said that many times.


Death: You're an interesting young man. We'll meet again.
Young Boris: Don't bother.
Death: It's no bother.


Sonja: To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy, one must love or love to suffer or suffer from too much happiness. I hope you're getting this down.
Natasha: I never want to marry, I just want to get divorced.


Napoleon: If this pastry is to bear my name, it must be richer. More cream.

New Monthly Review Webzine!

From one of my favorite activists and bloggers, Yoshi Furuhashi, who landed this rocking editing job:

MR webzine made its debut today (edited by yours
truly). Here's the lineup:

Thursday, July 14

Adrienne Rich
"A Debt to the World"

John Bellamy Foster
"The Wall Street Journal Meets Karl Marx"

Michael D. Yates
"Let's Put the Nature of Work on Labor's Agenda: Part One"

Richard D. Vogel
“Wal-Mart’s End Run Around Organized Labor -- Aided and Abetted by the State of Texas”

Matthew R. Anderson
"Social Medicine 101"

Gloria Rudolf
"Panama Journal"

Greetings from Liza Featherstone, Eduardo Galeano, Harry Magdoff, Marta Harnecker, Doug Henwood, Louis Proyect, and Annette T. Rubinstein

If you click on the image of the Bastille on the homepage, you can listen to "Ça ira" -- our homage to the French Revolution.

And tomorrow. you'll see:

Bill Fletcher
"Can We Do Anything besides Watch?: Some Ideas for Addressing Labor’s Crisis"

Marge Piercy
"Less than You Bargained for"

"An Interview with Samir Amin"

Soon, you'll be also able to read the work of such regular LBO-talk contributors as Tom Walker and Steve Philion at MR Webzine.

Yoshie Furuhashi

How Many Mothers' Hearts Must Be Mained?

Anyone who has been misled, or is being misled to believe that by killing innocent people he or she is serving God should think again because it's not true.

Death and destruction of young people in their prime as well as old and helpless can never be the foundations for building society.

A speech by Marie Fatayi-Williams, the mother of one of the victims of the London bombings (Thanks to Tom H. at Net Benefits for bringing it to our attention):

"This is Anthony, Anthony Fatayi -Williams, 26 years old, he's missing and we fear that he was in the bus explosion ... on Thursday. We don't know. We do know from the witnesses that he left the Northern line in Euston. We know he made a call to his office at Amec at 9.41 from the NW1 area to say he could not make [it] by the tube but he would find alternative means to work.

"Since then he has not made any contact with any single person. Now New York, now Madrid, now London. There has been widespread slaughter of innocent people. There have been streams of tears, innocent tears. There have been rivers of blood, innocent blood. Death in the morning, people going to find their livelihood, death in the noontime on the highways and streets.

"They are not warriors. Which cause has been served? Certainly not the cause of God, not the cause of Allah because God Almighty only gives life and is full of mercy. Anyone who has been misled, or is being misled to believe that by killing innocent people he or she is serving God should think again because it's not true.Terrorism is not the way, terrorism is not the way. It doesn't beget peace. We can't deliver peace by terrorism, never can we deliver peace by killing people. Throughout history, those people who have changed the world have done so without violence, they have [won] people to their cause through peaceful protest. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, their discipline, their self-sacrifice, their conviction made people turn towards them, to follow them. What inspiration can senseless slaughter provide? Death and destruction of young people in their prime as well as old and helpless can never be the foundations for building society.

"My son Anthony is my first son, my only son, the head of my family. In African society, we hold on to sons. He has dreams and hopes and I, his mother, must fight to protect them. This is now the fifth day, five days on, and we are waiting to know what happened to him and I, his mother, I need to know what happened to Anthony. His young sisters need to know what happened, his uncles and aunties need to know what happened to Anthony, his father needs to know what happened to Anthony. Millions of my friends back home in Nigeria need to know what happened to Anthony. His friends surrounding me here, who have put this together, need to know what has happened to Anthony. I need to know, I want to protect him. I'm his mother, I will fight till I die to protect him. To protect his values and to protect his memory.

"Innocent blood will always cry to God Almighty for reparation. How much blood must be spilled? How many tears shall we cry? How many mothers' hearts must be maimed? My heart is maimed. I pray I will see my son, Anthony. Why? I need to know, Anthony needs to know, Anthony needs to know, so do many others unaccounted for innocent victims, they need to know.

"It's time to stop and think. We cannot live in fear because we are surrounded by hatred. Look around us today. Anthony is a Nigerian, born in London, worked in London, he is a world citizen. Here today we have Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, all of us united in love for Anthony. Hatred begets only hatred. It is time to stop this vicious cycle of killing. We must all stand together, for our common humanity. I need to know what happened to my Anthony. He's the love of my life. My first son, my first son, 26. He tells me one day, "Mummy, I don't want to die, I don't want to die. I want to live, I want to take care of you, I will do great things for you, I will look after you, you will see what I will achieve for you. I will make you happy.' And he was making me happy. I am proud of him, I am still very proud of him but I need to now where he is, I need to know what happened to him. I grieve, I am sad, I am distraught, I am destroyed.

"He didn't do anything to anybody, he loved everybody so much. If what I hear is true, even when he came out of the underground he was directing people to take buses, to be sure that they were OK. Then he called his office at the same time to tell them he was running late. He was a multi-purpose person, trying to save people, trying to call his office, trying to meet his appointments. What did he then do to deserve this. Where is he, someone tell me, where is he?"

Discuss.

Islamic Militants Beheading Buddhists and Poor Workers in Thailand

From Reuters:

BANGKOK, July 6 (Reuters) - Suspected Islamic militants beheaded a policeman in Thailand's restive Muslim south, officials said on Wednesday, the tenth decapitation in more than 18 months of unrest but the first such attack on police. At least two militants shot senior police sergeant Sampan Onyala, a 43-year-old Buddhist, with a pistol and an AK-47 rifle late on Tuesday in a Muslim village in Pattani, one of the three southernmost provinces plagued by the violence, police said.[...]
Although most of the violence takes the form of daily shootings or small bomb or arson attacks, in the last month militants have stepped up a beheading campaign against Buddhists.
So far, most of the victims have been migrant labourers such as rubber plantation workers.

There is absolutely nothing progressive or anti-imperialist about these actions, nor is there any value to progressives in ignoring, defending, or failing to criticize these actions. These people are ultra right wing loonies. They are fascists. They make it impossibly difficult to forge any coherent or conscientious movement against imperialism, and they make it equally hard to keep U.S. militarism in check.

They are the worst kind of scum, because they capitalize on the misery of their followers.