Defining Lines at the Nasher

Much to see at three thoughtful, absorbing exhibits at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. "Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space" is one of them. ". . . [C]o-curated by Iftikahr Dadi and Hammad Nasar, brings together art across many genres . . . that have their common theme a preoccupation [pun intended?] with borders, boundaries and lines that divide and demarcate. . . " The British Empire, for one, "brought in its wake the geographic and cartographic division of much of the inhabited world . . ." Obviously, we're still living in the fallout zones from "the Middle East" to Africa and everywhere else in the world as we know it -- or really know it not. 

"Defining Lines: Cartography in the Age of Empire" takes a similar look at dividing lines, focusing on maps as cultural artifacts that carve up the world in ways that favor certain groups over others. "No matter . . . their claims to 'objectivity,' 'accuracy' and 'authority,' maps never simply show the world as it is; they are . . . 'a construction of reality, images laden with intentions and consequences.'" In the end, it's mostly about culture, power and economics. 

A third exhibit revolves around Doris Duke's spectacular "Shangri La" project in Hawaii, replete with beautiful Islamic-themed signs and wonders.

Very impressive all.

Today's Rune: Journey.   

The Ottoman Empire and the Great War of 1914-1918

In developing a mock online class on The Great War and the 1920s for training purposes, it's been interesting to connect the dots between the end of the Ottoman Empire -- and the intention of the Allied Powers to divvy up its territories -- to today's political and cultural developments throughout these same areas. Notice that Syria is smack-dab in the middle of this map of the Middle East.

For starters, all one need do is look at these maps to see the jigsaw puzzling impact of the Great War of 1914-1918 and its aftermath in the region, and on the world.

Here are some of my notes for such a class so far:

Unit 1, Lesson 2. The Ottoman Empire in Context.

Objectives:

To understand what was at stake for the Ottoman Empire in 1914.

To understand why the Ottomans allied themselves to the Central Powers.

To analyze why the Allied Powers sought access to Ottoman territories.

To analyze the strategic importance of geography and natural resources to all players.

Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  74-79.

What was at stake for the Ottoman Empire in 1914?

Why did the Ottomans ally themselves with the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires?

Why did the British, French and Russian Empires want access to territories under the control of the Ottoman Empire?

Consider resources and geography. Petroleum and waterways.

Unit 1, Lesson 3. Gallipoli.

Objectives:

To understand the Allied campaign to capture Constantinople/Istanbul.

To analyze how the Ottoman Turks contained the Allied attack at Gallipoli.

To understand the political and cultural impact of the Gallipoli Campaign.

Gallipoli Disaster. Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  265-272.

What was the Allied plan to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war?

How did the Ottoman Turks contain the Allied attack at Gallipoli?

Additional reading (primary sources): James Hannah, ed., The Great War Reader (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2000), pages 151-164.

Unit 1, Lesson 4. Armenian Genocide.

Objectives:

To understand why the Ottoman leadership conceived of its Armenian population as enemies.

To analyze the role of the Russian Empire in Ottoman calculation.

To understand the essential details of the Armenian Genocide.

To understand the aspirations of the Armenian and Kurdish peoples.

To analyze the longterm political and cultural impact of the Armenian Genocide.

Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  289-291.

Why did the leadership of the Ottoman Empire scapegoat the Armenian population?

What was the role of the Russian Empire in Ottoman calculations?

Unit 1, Lesson 5. Palestine Front. Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  538-541.

Unit 1, Lesson  6. Mesopotamia Campaign, 1915-1918.

Lieutenant General Frederick S. Maude after Allied capture of Baghdad in 1917: “Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators."

Critical thinking. What were the main objectives of the Allied forces in Mesopotamia?

What was the role of disease and the medical corps in the Mesopotamia Campaign?

Unit 1, Lesson 7. Treaty of Versailles, Treaty of Sèvres,  Mandate System. Emergence of Modern Turkey (Greek War, Smyrna). Syria and Lebanon, Palestine, etc. 

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune. Maps: UK National Archives.   

Syria's Turn

Today marks a significant turning point in the Syrian Civil War (2011-present) because the USA will now officially supply armaments to the rebels fighting Syria's Bashar Hafez al-Assad-led government forces. 

Above is an ethnoreligious map courtesy of Wiki Commons (from 2012).

To compare scale, Syria has many more people involved than did the American Civil War of 1861-1865, in which more than 600,000 died. Syria's population (including refugees) is about 23 million strong; so far, probably more than 100,000 people have died in its current civil war (about 93,000 is the official UN estimate as of today, mostly civilians).

A closer equivalent might be the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) -- Spain had a population of about 24-25 million people at the time. An estimated 500,000 died in the course of that internecine war; I'm not sure if the total number includes 150,000 or so executed by the government of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in its wake, or if the total rises to 650,000.

As with Spain, so now with Syria also in the sense of drawing in other nations, volunteers, weapons and additional supplies.

The Spanish Civil War is often depicted as a technological testing ground and precursor to World War II. The Syrian Civil War may be seen within the larger context of the "Arab Spring;" as for other effects, they will unfold with time.  

Today's Rune: Strength.    

The First and Last Casualties

Coverage of wars and poverty, of competing ideas and political conflict is all over the map.  Attention Deficit Disorder and entropy on one hand, pre-existing ideological prejudices and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder on the other.  Avoidance on the one hand, oversaturation on the other.

Some of the most memorable wartime investigative journalism can be epitomized by the work of Seymour Hersch, who has, during his career, written a number of penetrating stories for United Press International (UPI), the Associated Press (AP), The New York Times, The New Yorker, and more. Prime examples: exposing the My Lai Massacre (1968). Investigating the context of what led to the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (1983). Digging into the false pretenses and cynical manipulation of public perceptions by the Bush-Cheney Administation that led to the Iraq War (2003-2011). Delving into the ghoulish facts of the Abu Ghraib POW scandal. And so forth. This is not to say that Hersch is always completely accurate in his reporting, but rather that he's done more good investigative work relating to war and abuse of power than most. Under the banner of the First Amendment, we need more people doing this kind of work.

Today's Rune: Flow.

Blood and Rockets

Here we go again. No negotiated settlement, endless bloodletting -- in cycles. Without the will for successful negotiations, there can be no successful negotiations. Without a live-and-let-live attitude on all sides, there cannot be a live-and-let-live reality on the ground, in the air or on the high seas. And the destruction continues.  A tit-for-ten-tats, ten eyes-for-an-eye, another slaughter in the making for the "Holy Land."  Way to go, peoples.

  





















Today's Rune: Gateway.

Unfortunately, It Was Paradise

This will be the last post inspired by Jean-Luc Godard's Notre Musique (2004) -- for now.

In panning for more gold, another found nugget is Jean Racine's Phèdre (1677). This connects to contemplation of suicide by a main character in Godard's film. "Suicide is the only truly serious philosophical problem" - derived from a statement by Albert Camus (1913-1960): "Il n'y a qu'un problème philosophique vraiment sérieux: c'est le suicide" -- from Le Mythe de Sisyphe (1942) / The Myth of Sisyphus (1955). And then there's this eerie announcement: “Tonight I will be in heaven.”

Claude Lefort (1924-2010), a social-political theorist like Hannah Arendt, also pops up. Lefort wrote about, among other topics, Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) and Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), the butt of many pot jokes in American high school classes. I'm not sure if this is from Lefort, but around this time in Notre Musique, the following statement is made: "The life of man is but a battle for existence with being vanquished the only certainty . . .”  How will each person conduct that battle in the meantime?

Finally, there's Palestinian poet-writer Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), born in Palestine, died in Texas. Given his arc, the title Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems (2003) makes perfect sense. Displaced, exiled, with no hope of return, in Notre Musique, he speaks of being a Poet of Troy, the city overrun near the end of the Trojan War. The thorny Palestinian-Israeli relationship has been at the heart of many a Middle Eastern dilemma for as long as I can remember, with no out in sight. 

  















Mahmoud Darwish discussing poetry and life in Bosnia links to the arrival of American Indians (aka Native Americans) at the Mostar Bridge, pointing to a feeling of similar displacements in North America. It could be that reconstruction of the bridge after the Bosnian War will parallel reconstruction and reconciliation for "First Nations" here in the 21st century.

Today's Rune: Separation (Reversed).
 

Jean-Luc Godard: Film Socialisme (Take II)

Godard's Film Socialisme (2010): funhouse, kaleidoscope, house of horrors. Beauty, ugliness. The better angels of our nature, the lesser demons of our nature. Literature and petroleum products. Art and war. A voyage on the Costa Concordia before it sinks.

"Money is a public good."
"Like water?"
"Exactly."

Egyptian hieroglyphs, jarring noises. Patti Smith with guitar. William S. Burroughs. “Casablanca, Algeria, Cairo.” Digital shambolic. David Lynch: INLAND EMPIRE (2006). Patterns. Questions. Suggestions. Palestine.

“I turned away so as not to see.”

Culture bank, watches, gold. Today, past, future. Crisp. Documentary quality. A slice of Robert Altman. “You will have friends.”

"Quo Vadis, Europa – Where are you going, Europe?"
“We look at ourselves in wars like in a mirror.”
“It takes guts to think . . . You have to love yourself enough not to harm your neighbor. . .”

"When you hear your own voice, where does it come from?"

Werner Herzog, Luis Buñuel. A llama, a burro, a petrol pump, a woman reading Balzac: Illusions perdues /Lost Illusions (1837-1843).
“I’m going back down south.”
“If you make fun of Balzac, I’ll kill you.”
To be or to have?  Erich Fromm (1976).

A long line, a suggestion box.

"Today’s August 4, right?"
Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Journey to the End of Night / Voyage au bout de la nuit (1932). 
1789, August 4.
Saint Just ‘89.

Tactile, sinks, kitchens, washing up.
Florine and Lucien.
TEXT.

"Liberate and federate our humanity."

"On neither the sun, nor death, can we look fixedly." François de La Rochefoucauld.

Steps of Odessa – Battleship Potempkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
Eye of the camera, ears.
Man with a Movie Camera / Человек с киноаппаратом (Dziga Vertov aka David Kaufman, Elizaveta Svilova, Mikhail Abramovich Kaufman, 1929).

Hellas, Greece: Cassandra.

Brion Gysin, cut-up.
Space-time-puzzle.

"When the law isn’t just, justice precedes law."

Today's Rune: Harvest.

Is it Over?

And so the US is seemingly pulling its last combat troops out of Iraq after nearly nine years of invasion and occupation. It's been so long many were born into this debacle and have no idea how it all happened.

After the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991 -- in which Iraq's military was badly defeated in response to its invasion of Kuwait -- no fly zones (NFZ map above courtesy of wikimedia) were created by the US, UK and France to keep the battered Saddam Hussein regime's remaining armed forces in check. One aspect of the NFZ: Kurds were to be more protected in the north and Shiites in the south from continued Hussein regime revenge attacks. Hussein's Iraq had earlier fought a brutal eight-year war with Iran and was still its primary enemy, so its eastern flank had to be covered, too. 

Into this mix -- which had the effect of keeping Hussein's government penned in while remaining a counterbalance to Iran -- came the events of 9/11/2001. The George W. Bush administration decided to invade Iraq, even though there was no direct link between Iraq and 9/11; the attacks had been devised and managed from Afghanistan, where bin Laden was based under the auspices of the Taliban. 

France, Turkey and several Arab states refused to participate in the invasion of Iraq (France did and does participate in Afghanistan operations). The US-led invasion of Iraq by a "coalition of the willing" removed Saddam Hussein from power, but emboldened (and made nervous) the Iranian government, which is still even now moving toward a nuclear weapons capability and engaged in a shadow war with its opponents.

Was the 2003 invasion of Iraq a wise move? Could the US afford such an adventure? Was it worth the cost in blood and treasure? Five and half years after the start of the invasion, the US economy took a nosedive, as did the economies of many of its allies. Today, the Obama Administration welcomed home some of the last US troops to be pulled out of Iraq.

Looking back, Turkey's position has risen. Some may not now remember or know that Turkey refused to allow US ground forces to invade northern Iraq through its territory. Now the Turkish government is in a stronger position to influence events in the entire region, including Syria, Israel-Palestine, Egypt and Iraq. The Turks and Kurdish elements continue to fight along the borderlands, as well. The Iraq War -- wiser to avoid than to plunge into.

I was opposed to an invasion of Iraq in 2002 and 2003, protested in the streets along with many many others to no avail and continue to think it was a terrible decision.

Today's Rune: Strength.
    

The Long Art

"Life is short, and Art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision difficult." Hippocrates (ca. 460 B.C.-377 B.C.)

Or, as Gore Vidal has compressed it, "Life is short, but the art is long."

Some things have persisted through a lifetime, and remain there seemingly as always. Cuba. Israel-Palestine, North Korea/South Korea. James Bond. The Rolling Stones. Bob Dylan. Space shots. Civil rights, human rights, gender issues. China. 

Some things have morphed. Vietnam. Ireland/Northern Ireland. Germany. The Cold War. The Soviet Union. Eastern Europe. The Balkans.

And the ball keeps spinning. Some plots thicken, some plots thin. Cuba is changing. Korea will, either in a violent spasm or in some unexpected manner. Palestine will become a nation.

In my lifetime, though these things seem slow, they have changed, even as the population has increased, half again as big in the USA alone (though half as small in Detroit and, probably, New Orleans). South America has changed, Africa has changed, and both continents will change at a quicker pace. All of Africa, not just North Africa, perhaps following the Arab Spring, may begin throwing off dictators. Who knows? What will happen in Mexico? How will the drug wars end? How about Iran, India and Pakistan? And so on. I remain as curious as a cat about all of it, but with vegan meals added. 

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

Homeland Insecurity: Israel Palestine

Fraught with emotion, turmoil and global complexity: the nexus of the "homeland" concept with two overlapping, conflicting realities, Israel and Palestine.

The Google Ngram above (created by simply plugging in the terms "Israel" and "Palestine") very clearly indicates that the nation-concept of Israel became, in the corpus of American English texts digitized by Google,  the more widely used one, starting in or around 1948, the year Israel became first recognized as a modern nation state, and the concept of Palestine became phantomized.

In British English texts, there's a little more lag time. Why? Probably because, until 1948, the British Mandate for Palestine was the externally accepted narrative, then displaced by Israel-Palestine. Even so, by 1950, Israel overtakes Palestine in textual discussions.

The British Empire's direct influence in the region peaked from near the end of the First World War (1914-1918) until around sometime in the 1950s. British economic and political interests remain, though, at the beginning of the 21st century.  

The proposed partition of Israel-Palestine in 1947 looks like a mess even at a rearview glance. As of 2011, Humpty Dumpty has yet to be pieced together again, but a globally recognized State of Palestine is in the pipeline.

Today's Rune: Movement.  

Ninety Years On: All New People, 1919

Now we're getting to the year where there's almost no one still left alive from. My grandmother (Catherine Currier), born in 1914, still lives, but the number of people born before 1919 is dwindling month by month. We're almost all new people now, to paraphrase Anne Lamott. And just wait until 2109 rolls around!

What have we learned from 1919? Women still couldn't vote in most places in the USA. The 19th Amendment was beginning to circulate around the states, and was first ratified in Illinois and Michigan. By the end of 1919, twenty-two states had voted for it and by 1920, women over twenty-one could vote. As of 2009, women in the USA can still vote, but in Saudi Arabia, women still cannot. Have we learned that women can vote without the sky falling down?


1919, here come both the radio and radio airwaves. Ideas for mobile radios, car radios, things more or less like mobile phones. At the time, people could connect by fixed telegraph and telephone, and follow sports and other entertainment events more easily. What have we learned from 1919? People love new technology!



The Palmer Raids. US Government forces with the assistance of local authorities rounded up thousands of people in a combination of xenophobia, racism and sheer stupidity. Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were deported, among others. What have we learned since 1919's Palmer Raids? As a society, virtually nothing. But there is a long legacy of free speech advocacy that persists. To connect the dots, check out Chris Finan's From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America (2007).

In 1919, things were even worse in Germany. Freikorps brutes roamed around Berlin, killing Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and other leftists. And in Italy, Benito Mussolini organized for an eventual fascist takeover.



The Treaty of Versailles. What have we learned from this legacy of 1919? Vindictive peace treaties backfire. Better to try and rise above local hatreds and land grabs. How this connects ninety years later? Check out David Fromkin's A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East (2001+)

The League of Nations was formed. Only as good as its constituent member leadership allowed it to be, much like its eventual replacement, the United Nations.


Almost every conflict in the Middle East has roots that begin or pass through 1919. We collectively seem to have forgotten how large a role the British Empire played at the time. British forces perpetrated the Jallianwala Bagh (Amritsar) Massacre in India, an event that helped propel India toward eventual independence after the Second World War. British policymakers had their hands in Persia, Iraq, Kuwait, Palestine, Trans-Jordan, and just about anywhere they could, including much of Africa and South Asia.

In Afghanistan at the time, Amanullah Khan became Amir (and later Shah) of Afghanistan (by abetting the assassination of his own father); Afghanistan was declared independent from the British Empire.

Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) landed in what is now Turkey, beginning to push out Greeks and their Western Allies. Armenians were forced to choose between extermination by Turks or being annexed by the Soviet Union. The Republic of Armenia was (re-)established after the breakup of the Soviet Empire, in 1991.



What else from 1919? The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918 finally ran its course. Edsel Ford took over Ford Motor Company from Henry. The Black Sox baseball scandal. Teddy Roosevelt died at sixty, having survived an assassination attempt in 1912. A series of strikes and riots across the US and worldwide. Pancho Villa raided near the US border (again) as the Mexican Revolution began to unwind. US troops (again) crossed into Mexico. The Grand Canyon was made a national park. Prohibition began!

Pop music began reflecting changes in the world: Fred Van Eps, "Since Katy the Waitress (became an Aviatress)," Nora Bayes, "How Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?" and "Prohibition Blues." And the beat goes on . . .

Today's Rune: Defense.

Dark Star: Full Spectrum Dominance

We live in a chilling world where nobody really knows what exactly is going on or where we're going. Economically, militarily -- or personally. A dog cloned for $155,000. Secret operations, psyops, super-hacking, disruptions in the food chain. Post-traumatic stress syndrome, military suicides. Vaporized investments.

Full Spectrum Dominance: dominating a battlefield, a zone, a region, an occupied territory. Toy robots, Dark Star, remote-controlled Predator drones, Hellfire missile systems, Global Hawk. Even the names are chilling. And what country produced these infernal systems? The USA. Look at Israel's "operations" in Gaza, and wonder who's who.

What do enemies do? Hide in the rubble, hide among civilians. Why? Because they would be slaughtered in a conventional fight, like Iraqi soldiers on the Highway of Death in 1991. Counter with primitive means -- suicide bombers, an endless supply of individual kamikazes. Their most effective weapons over the long-term? Tenacity and economic attrition. Entropy. For the rest of our lives. Unless peace can be found with equal tenacity, plus a tinge of the miraculous -- as in Northern Ireland. Who would have thought those "Troubles" would ever end? So, too, it could happen in and around Israel and Palestine. If there's a will, there's a way.

















The US needs to continue supporting Israel, but it must also use its support as leverage. As with Ireland, the US must play heavy to broker a negotiated settlement. Because Full Spectral Dominance may win in the short term, but it probably cannot in the long-term. Grinding attrition trumps technological edge, and demographics favor the now weak in the long run. Empires rise and empires fall. What is left is a rump state, or nothing at all but cultural diffusion, or a lingering spectral presence.

(Pictured at top: Rahul Mahajan, Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond (2003).

Today's Rune: Wholeness.

Lipstick Jihad

Azadeh Moaveni, Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran (2005).

Loved this book, mentioned yesterday. Moavani also assisted Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi with her memoir, Iran Awakening (4/21/2007 post).

Lipstick Jihad covers Moaveni's years growing up in an Iranian (or Persian) household in California, part of the Iranian diaspora. It shifts to Iran in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century. Since the period discussed, she has reported on Iran, the Iraq War and the Middle East in general. Presently, she lives in Tehran and has a website.

Moaveni strongly advocates for the separation of mosque and state, which, of course, I can relate to completely. When religion -- any religion -- trumps secularized civil society, the majority religion tends to push non-believers, apostates, and "heretics" around, and such has been the case in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Moaveni is particularly strong about the rights of women and children, so it's no wonder she worked with Ebadi.

Moaveni loathes repressive fundamentalist Islamic social codes and practices, but she is no fan of President G.W. Bush, either:

Though Iran played no role in Sept. 11, it was, like Iraq and Palestine, contaminated by the fallout. President Bush declared Iran part of an "axis of evil," which did not bode well at the time, since it was becoming clear that Iraq, our neighbor and fellow axis member, was going to be invaded. The term "axis of evil" sounded funny in English, but in Farsi it struck a bizarrely familar note: It was ideological and inflammatory, the sort of phrase a mullah would think up and bellow out during Friday prayer. For years the clerics behaved like madmen, screeching at the Great Satan fron their pulpits, and suddenly there was an echo from the other side, someone screeching back in the same tone . . .

If the ostensible goal of the Bush administration was to promote tolerance and democracy in the Middle East, thereby discouraging militancy and religious extremism, then its policies had neatly produced the opposite effect (pages 224-225).

Lots of insight in this memoir, and glimpses of Iranian life that rarely make it into mainstream American media. I suppose it's far more urgent to learn how Paris Hilton will respond to jail time in the USA.

Today's Rune: The Self.

Birthdays: Jean Henri Dunant, Youssef Antoun Makhlouf (Saint Charbel), Harry S Truman, Edmund Wilson, Robert Johnson, Sloan Wilson, Don Rickles, Gary Snyder, Sonny Liston, Thomas Pynchon, Philip Bailey, Janet McTeer.

Khoda hafaz!

Everybody is on their knees except the Russians and the Chinese

Called careers information
Have you got yourself an occupation?

We could be in Palestine
Overrun by a Chinese line

-- Elvis Costello, "Oliver's Army" (1979)

Ever wonder what the world is going to look like in 2050? If that's too much of a stretch, how about in 2015?

What was it like growing up?

Is it better to tend your own garden or be a nomad?

Is it better to be on the offensive or the defensive?

Is it better to be flexible or steadfast?

Is it better to stick your head in the sand or to look around and see what's up?

Is it better to have a lot of firepower or fast wits?

Is it better to be pessimistic or optimistic?

Is it better to have freedom and choice or fatalism and destiny?

As we move into the Sagittarian cycle, lots to wonder about beyond artificial polarities.

Today's Rune: Strength.

Zài jiàn

Under Code Orange Skies

Shop until you drop, woo-hoo!

Simultaneous headlines --

Rangel: Bring back the draft
Kissinger: Victory in Iraq not possible
McCain: Send more troops to Iraq

We're under Code Orange alert again.

We wake up to a science fiction reality.

What the hell is "the Homeland," anyway? The creepy name "Department of Homeland Security" is something new in the USA.

This country was never referred to as "the Homeland" in over 200 years. NEVER. As far as I can tell, it began surfacing in the mid-1990s. It became a reality in 2002. Why?

Language shapes reality -- is this the reality we want to live in?


Christians, Jews and Muslims call Palestine "The Holy Land" -- starting with the Crusades.


Stalin's Russia was defended as "The Motherland."


Hitler's Germany was championed as "The Fatherland."


In the post-9/11 USA, we are "The Homeland."


Are we being invaded by Martians? Did somebody get high and watch Mars Attacks! and think it a clever idea to call the USA The Homeland?
So much for "We Are the World."




Today's Rune: The Blank Rune.

Happy Vapor Trails!

Just a Shot Away

On this date . . . . .

The Shot Heard Round the World at Lexington and Concord began the American Revolution, 1775.

1861: Baltimore Riots at outbreak of the American Civil War.

1909: Joan of Arc beatified (finally).

1936: Great Uprising in Palestine.

1943: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

1961: Bay of Pigs disaster.

1971: Charles Manson sentenced to life imprisonment.

1989: Trisha Meili, the Central Park Jogger, mercilessly assaulted.

1993: Federal assault on Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas.

1995: Oklahoma City bombed by American terrorists.

Trouble Times

It's early April and we suddenly have an extra hour of light in the evening. This is traditionally the perfect opportunity for riots, uprisings, spring offensives, declarations of war, and invasions.

Spring 2006 has the same volatile energy as momentous past years. I don't mean that it could be a repeat of 1968 or 1848, but who knows?

What are people protesting out in the streets these days? Well, around brutal Detroit, there are always anti-war demonstrations, and lately more protests involving jobs or job cuts and immigration policies. There are similar kinds of street actions going on in Paris and around the world. Muslim areas are especially stirred up, of course, and things in Iraq and Afghanistan (not to mention Palestine) are teetering close to the edge. The situation is also bad in Belarus, with thick columns of black-clad riot troops securing the main streets. Let's not forget environmental and animal rights protests, either. With bird flu, Mad Cow, and mercury poisoning making their rounds though the global food chain, these are as serious issues as war and peace, actually more so.

But hey, baseball season is around the corner and dandelions will grow again even in Detroit.

Within days, people will be fishing again in the Detroit River, grilling slabs of meat in rusty oil drums, and wolfing down "city chicken." Bon appétit.

Birthdays today: Émile Zola (1840-1902), Marvin Gaye (1939-1984), Camille Paglia (1947-).

Happy birthday! Zola and Marvin probably understood urban street dynamics as well as anybody. But Marvin was a much better singer, I suspect. Furthermore, he was attuned to the messy global vibe thirty years ago. That's the beauty of Detroit -- clarity.

50th Anniversary: As the World Turns and The Edge of Night.

Last year on this very day, John Paul II died (1920-2005). May he rest in peace.

Peace be with you.