Tommyjournal archive July 2005
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Tuesday 07.26.05
Five days ago, I wrote about two teenagers executed in Iran. Andrew Sullivan had mentioned them in his blog without discussing the (possibly trumped-up) rape charges. Sullivan is taking a break from blogging and handed over the reins to Judith Apter Klinghoffer, who wrote again today about the same execution. She provided a link to an article at gayorbit.net that also makes no mention of the rape charges. I wrote to Michael Demmos, editor of gayorbit.net, asking whether it was fair to ignore the charges. He wrote back: It is fair once you realize that the Iranian government is very well known for trumping up "morality" charges by including rape charges that never happened.It's still lightweight journalism to not mention any of that in the article. Note also what Mr. Demmos didn't say: he didn't say he knows that the rape charges were trumped up in this case. I deplore Iran's laws about homosexuality. I deplore this public execution. But to Messrs. Demmos and Sullivan, and to Ms. Klinghoffer: I urge you to be thorough in your reporting. One more thing. Sullivan wrote Gay Americans seem to me right now to be far too complacent. I'm amazed that we haven't seen more targeting of gay clubs or venues by Islamist fanatics. And I'm saddened that more gay organizations haven't rallied to the war against Muslim religious fanatics. This is our war too.and from gayorbit.com And we hope, if nothing else good comes of this, that it will get more gay people on side, realizing this is our war too.Which war do these people want me to believe is my war too? Exactly what response to Iran's injustices do they want me to support? It's bad enough that the Bush administration is using the notion of being at war (against terrorism, not "against Muslim religious fanatics" as Sullivan said) as a means of rallying support for a range of ambitious interventions. With how many different objectives have been conflated under the rubric of the (singular) "war", it's just dopey for a blogger to say that "this" is my war, too. In case you ever wondered why I call Sullivan boneheaded, this illustrates it. I asked Michael Demmos about this. In my email to him, I wrote You should be more specific. Exactly _what_ is our war too?He didn't respond to that. Monday 07.25.05 This came in the mail. Thursday 07.21.05 As reported by www.iranfocus.com: Tehran, Iran, Jul. 19 - A young man and a minor were hanged in public on Tuesday in Iran's second largest city, a government-funded news agency reported. It's unclear whether the 'crime' was just gay sex, i.e. whether the rape charges were trumped up. Other reports at www.iranian.ws and isna.ir (in Farsi). This incident reminded me of a teenager in my town who'd been accused six years or so ago of raping three teenage boys. Although he was (slightly) under 18 at the time of the alleged crimes, he was charged as an adult and thus, although he wasn't hanged, he faced a potentially lengthy prison sentence. I don't know how his case was ultimately adjudicated, and I'm not inclined to ask the sheriff or DA now. It's very hard to tell as an outside observer whether such charges are trumped up. I wouldn't be surprised if some parents can't accept the fact that their kids could consent to gay sex, and pressure them into testifying that they were raped. Meanwhile, the issue of whether or not the rape charges in Iran were trumped up was ignored by one well-known (but boneheaded) blogger, who said the teenagers were hanged "for being gay". Maybe they were--but I have my doubts that said blogger knows for sure. See also this email. Make no mistake, homosexual activity is illegal in Iran; consenting adults can be put to death. Anent capital punishment in general-- the five countries with the most executions in 2004:
Tuesday 07.19.05 Same as yesterday, except it was 101°F today. And...! Happy nineteenth. Monday 07.18.05 Another 100° afternoon climbing. If that's the worst thing the weather does, I can't complain. I mean, I'm glad hurricanes don't tool around in my neighborhood. Saturday 07.16.05 In May, Pedro Chequer--who heads Brazil's government-sponsored anti-AIDS program--declined $40 million U.S. in aid from the U.S. government. The offer was conditional on Brazil condemning the practice of prostitution, which is legal in the South American nation. 47 per cent of American respondents believe each country should spend assistance funds at their discretion, while 32 per cent think the U.S. should have a say on which initiatives get financing. Source: Angus Reid Global Scan.Tommy notes:
Thursday 07.14.05 From an online car ad: The "just like you" in the ad reminds me of encountering Angela Alioto on Castro Street ten years ago when she was trying to scare up enough signatures to get her name on the ballot to run for mayor of San Francisco. An aide of hers told me "she's into the kind of things you're into." (Really? Like anal sex?) "Like human rights." (Oh. As opposed to those other candidates who are against human rights.) Everything I wrote about yesterday applied to this afternoon as well, except that it was 100° today instead of 97°. Wednesday 07.13.05 Warmest day of the year so far here, about 97°F at Tommyjournal central. I got a call this afternoon asking if I wanted to go climbing; of course I said yes. Relative humidity below 10% rocks. Tuesday 07.12.05 No one I know takes delight in how badly the war in Iraq is going, not even those who most strongly opposed the war in the first place. Not one of my friends is delighted by the slaughter and suffering and disorder that are now routine in Iraq. I bring this up because some pro-war commentators talk as if there were an epidemic of unhealthy delight. In a largely thoughtful essay, Professor Eliot Cohen wrote (italics mine) A variety of emotions wash over me as I reflect on our Iraq war: Disbelief at the length of time it took to call an insurgency by its name. Alarm at our continuing failure to promote at wartime speed the colonels and generals who have a talent for fighting it, while also failing to sweep aside those who do not. Incredulity at seeing decorations pinned on the chests and promotions on the shoulders of senior leaders -- both civilians and military -- who had the helm when things went badly wrong. Disdain for the general who thinks Job One is simply whacking the bad guys and who, ever conscious of public relations, cannot admit that American soldiers have tortured prisoners or, in panic, killed innocent civilians. Contempt for the ghoulish glee of some who think they were right in opposing the war, and for the blithe disregard of the bungles by some who think they were right in favoring it. A desire -- barely controlled -- to slap the highly educated fool who, having no soldier friends or family, once explained to me that mistakes happen in all wars, and that the casualties are not really all that high and that I really shouldn't get exercised about them. I see people hoping that Americans understand what has happened in Iraq (and at Guantánamo Bay, and elsewhere), and understand what has happened to their country. I see people hoping that Bush and his cronies get what they deserve. But I just don't see "ghoulish glee", and it bugs me to see anti-Iraq-war sentiment so unfairly caricatured. And--as long as I'm on the subject of Iraq--consider this Q&A with Fran Townsend, White House Homeland Security Adviser (Fox News Sunday, July 10, 2005):
"Not have the sort of civilian casualties that you saw in London"-- in other words, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths don't count. (Thanks to Bill Montgomery for calling this revealing comment to my attention.) Monday 07.11.05 I had a dream recently that a merchant in town offered me a job making neon signs. I said OK. I wonder how life would be if I did manual labor for a living and programming for fun (as opposed to the other way around). Considering how easy it is to hurt oneself with power tools (and how safe a keyboard is by comparison), it's probably a good thing I've made my living in software. Speaking of manual labor: after about 15 years and 18,000 units, the end of NSX production. Monday 07.04.05 About 19 years ago, I interviewed a candidate for a software engineering position--a Russian gentleman who had emigrated from the Soviet Union about six months before. We spoke for most of an hour about the job that was being offered and about his experience; then at the end of the interview we chatted a little about other topics. I asked him how he liked life in the USA. He said he liked the freedom, but that there's such a thing as too much freedom. I asked for an example, and he said "Let me give you a technical example: the C programming language." For non-programmers in the audience, a different example: we paint lines on parking lots, because the freedom to park any which way would result in less efficient use of the space and more collisions. Many of the thorny questions in politics are, at root, the question of where to strike a balance between too little and too much freedom. But that's way too complicated to use as a slogan--thus, just the one word liberty on coins, and the monument in New York Harbor isn't called the Statue of Just the Right Amount of Liberty. But to play in the spirit of the day: I can simply and truly say that I cherish my freedom, and I'm grateful for it. |
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