Everything is a Remix

If I am late to the party that is this page, I am so very sorry.  Today, I am sending you to another web page for some really cool history lessons.  Go.  But come back tomorrow.  Maybe we'll discuss.  

Everything is a Remix

Been Avoiding Benghazi

If the zombie apocalypse ever actually starts, I am pretty sure it will be about Benghazi.  Here me out: Can’t you imagine the hordes of undead, clustered, advancing while dragging a limp foot behind fiendishly demanding a brain.  Think about it!  Many of the people who have decried Benghazi as the worst tragedy since 9/11 couldn’t find Benghazi on a grade-school globe before this past year.  These witch hunt cries of a desperate people, demanding a domestic villain for an international crime can only be the first sign of the viral infections that will ultimately cause the zombie apocalypse.  Their brains, deprived too long of reason, will demand the consumption and assimilation of fresh brains which are actually capable of independent reasonable thought.  It’s not quite I Am Legend, but I think it’s close.

“What difference, at this point, does it make?”

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took on the Republican critics who have been demanding answers to their tough questions about culpability and the September attacks in Libya.  There were a total of 5 hours worth of testimony, but the one statement above seems to have gone the most viral.  And, to be fair, it should.  What are we hoping to accomplish by beating on the work of the Secretary of the State’s office, at this point?  What good can come of this?

For those still doggedly clinging to the idea that there are still no answers about Benghazi, let me help you out.  Here’s a transcript of what Secretary Clinton had to say.  For better or worse, the fighting, yelling matches, and sound bites have taken over the coverage of the proceedings.  It’s not fair; there are some really good bits in here that should have gotten more airtime.

Take this, and the emphasis is mine:

Any clear-eyed examination of this matter must begin with this sobering fact: Since 1988, there have been 19 accountability review boards investigating attacks on American diplomats and their facilities. Benghazi joins a long list of tragedies, for our department and for other agencies: hostages taken in Tehran in 1979, our embassy and Marine barracks bombed in Beirut in 1983, Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, our embassies in East Africa in 1998, consulate staff murdered in Jeddah in 2004, the Khost attack in 2009, and too many others.  Of course, the list of attacks foiled, crises averted, and lives saved is even longer. We should never forget that our security professionals get it right 99 percent of the time, against difficult odds all over the world. That's why, like my predecessors, I trust them with my life.

Let me translate that one for you.  This stuff has the potential to happen all of the time.  We are a stranger in a strange land more often than not.  Our people see it coming, and we are able to stop bad things from happening.  But sometimes, bad stuff still happens.

Ms. Clinton goes on to say that she has started a review board, has implemented all of their suggestions, and have turned those suggestions into very specific action steps that are better than 85% complete.  They are also looking at big picture stuff about the strategic approach to diplomacy in places like North Africa.  She's done all of this already.  Since September.  This woman is more productive than any two people I know and she missed a month of work because of a blood clot.  In her brain.  

And there's this:

That's why Chris Stevens went to Benghazi in the first place. Nobody knew the dangers better than Chris, first during the revolution and then during the transition. A weak Libyan government, marauding militias, even terrorist groups... a bomb exploded in the parking lot of his hotel, but he didn't waver. Because he understood that it was critical for America to be represented in that pivotal place at that pivotal time. Our men and women who serve overseas understand that we accept a level of risk to protect this country we love. They represent the best traditions of a bold and generous nation. And they cannot work in bunkers and do their jobs.

Again, I will translate.  This is the job.  It's always heartbreaking to face loss of this nature.  No one wants to say it, but the work diplomacy sometimes means dodging violence, too.  We expect our soldiers to place themselves in harm's way for the defense of country.  Our diplomats do the same thing.  Our military has suffered casualties (and how!) in recent years and now so too have our ambassadors.  It is heartbreaking, but no less so than the thousands of soldiers who have also lost their lives.

Ms. Clinton is right.  The only thing that matters at this point is how to avoid further loss of life.  We can, as the old Mother Jones quote goes "Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living."  And that is all we can do.  Of course, it won't be enough to stop the zombie hordes from descending; they are always looking for something to prattle on about.  But I will stay with Ms. Clinton on this one.  Until the first undead dude shows up at my doorstep.  And then, if I am to understand this process at all, I think it becomes every man or woman for themselves. I don't know for sure.  I don't watch those movies: they scare me worse than politics.

Women in Combat vs Women at War

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the end of an era when he said that women would no longer be barred from combat positions in the military.  There has been a lot of talk about what will change.  Women have been on the front lines for more than two wars, engaged with the enemy and have in fact, lost their lives over the span of these past few decades.  Women have seen combat, but the official ban was lifted, and that counts for something.  It counts as we look at the possibility of a military career for women.  It counts if we’re looking at a Defense Department that is now moving more in sync with reality and the natureof war.  This change matters if you are looking at the long game of women’s equality.  Where I hope it will matter most, however, is in the military’s response to the overwhelming number of women who are raped while serving their country.

It is a statistic that should make you sick to your stomach: a woman in the military is more likely to be raped than a civilian woman.  One in three military women has been assaulted.  Compare that to the national statistic of one in six civilians, and your head will start to hurt.  Who is attacking women in the military?  More than half of the assaults reported were military on military.  According to The Huffington Post, a servicewoman was nearly 180 times more likely to have become a victim of military sexual assault (MSA) in the past year than to have died while deployed during the last 11 years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

From that same article:

According to the most recent report by the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, 3,192 sexual assaults were reported out of an estimated 19,000 -- roughly 52 a day -- between Oct. 1, 2010, to Sept. 31, 2011. The department estimates that only roughly 14 percent of the assaults were reported. The majority of sexual assaults each year are committed against service members by service members, SAPRO reports. While MSA does not affect only women, the office characterizes the "vast majority" of victims as female junior enlists under the age of 25, and the "vast majority" of perpetrators as male, older (under the age of 35) and generally higher-ranking.

Why is this problem so rampant?  Why aren’t you talking about this over cocktails at a dinner party?  Well, like rapes on civilian women, these rapes go largely unreported.  But for an added bonus incentive to would-be rapists in military fatigues, you will likely not be punished.  Story after story comes out of the barracks about these women, who suffered the worst abuse at the hands of fellow soldiers only to be ridiculed, persecuted, and ultimately relieved of duty while their attackers remain in good standing with the military. 

If you have the stomach for it, I would recommend the documentary “The Invisible War.”  There are a lot of parts that could be triggers, however, if you have a history of your own to consider.  No one asks for this, but I find these cases particularly heartbreaking.  Don’t forget: these are women who are also serving their country.  Who are also bravely fighting, and must also work very hard to stay safe from enemy attack.  This is not what they signed on for and this should not be their fate.

If you are comfortable with the language that says that there is an American war on women, this is another frontline.  If you are willing to say that, women have seen bloody combat for years.  Our human decency has also seen the causalities.  But thank you, Mr. Panetta for trying.  Maybe there’s another, more secret policy of rape culture in the military that we can phase out for good, too.  Will this be the year we finally answer that question?

 

Just a giggle

All Quiet on the ....

I must do better with this.  I am sorry.

I decided that I didn't want to post about guns for a little while.  The problem with that is that there is very little on the news these days that doesn't have some connection to guns and gun control.  There's a young boy in New Mexico, there's another university shooting, and endless drivel from the fine folks over at the NRA.  I could have said so much about the commercial they created that targeted the Obama girls.  I could, but they make me tired, so I didn't.  The end result is that I didn't write anything. 

Clinton is testifying about Benghazi today.  I can't wait to hear how this all shakes out.  Tune in tomorrow to see.

One Month Ago, Redacted

It's been one month since Newtown.  I thought that, just for today, I would take away all of the talk about guns as an act of mourning.  Just for today, no one shot anyone.  No one argues about the right to own firearms.   

If you're as tired of all of it as I am, this might be a small vacation.  Just for today, enjoy your news.  Redacted.  

in memoriam

Janis Joplin.  Curt Cobain.  Jimi Hendricks.  Jim Morrison.  Amy Winehouse.  All rock stars, rock gods, even.  Wonderful and gifted musicians at the pinnacle of their career.  All dead at 27.

On Friday, January 11, 2013, the world lost another kind of rock star.  He was 26.  He killed himself.

I don't permit myself many heroes.  My chosen field is technology, and there are many to choose from if you'd like to find an idol among them.  I will always fondly mention Grace Hopper, Alan Turing and Steve Jobs. Most of these did something truly revolutionary in their day.  Each of these stepped away from the pack and said there is a brand new thing that is possible.  Each used a determination that we all envy to forge a new thing, a new way of computing, or a new relationship to technology.  If you have a smartphone, a computer or even a GPS, you should be grateful to any of these people.  We should all be grateful.

The man who died on Friday probably won't be listed in anyone else's list of technology rock gods.  His name was Aaron Swartz.  Aaron began his path to being a computer genius when he was still a child.   At 14, he would co-develop RSS.   And at 20, Reddit.  By 26, he had founded Demand Progress.  There are about 14 active campaigns at Demand Progress, most of which are about civil rights, civil liberties, and government reform.  Swartz wasn't just making the newest shiny toy for all of us to adore; he was using his computer skills to try to change the world.

The one thing that Swartz could not change was his depression.  A deep and abiding sadness took him from us, leaving more of the same.  From the 14 year old boy that Aaron was, to the man he had become, the legacy of exceptional, natural intellectual power was accompanied by bouts of depression. In an excerpt from his blog, Swartz describes what depression is like, and then goes on to say:

The economist Richard Layard, after advocating that the goal of public policy should be to maximize happiness, set out to learn what the greatest impediment to happiness was today. His conclusion: depression. Depression causes nearly half of all disability, it affects one in six, and explains more current unhappiness than poverty. And (important for public policy) Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy has a short-term success rate of 50%. Sadly, depression (like other mental illnesses, especially addiction) is not seen as “real” enough to deserve the investment and awareness of conditions like breast cancer (1 in 8) or AIDS (1 in 150). And there is, of course, the shame.

In his time, Swartz was labeled a digital hero.  He was no rock god, but like so many talented young geniuses, there is the feeling that they were only ever ours to borrow.


And there is, of course, the shame.  We should all feel this shame.

Yes.  It is a shame.  Rest in peace, Aaron.  Thank you for your all of your service.

Smoke and Mirrors

There's nothing like a good art exhibit to put a mirror up to your face.  It will shock and, if it's really good, inspire you.  Good art will demand that you think, and while you're at it, figure out why you think that.  Frieke Janssens Photography has done just that with her Smoking Kids series. 

Let me take a step back.  I first learned of this photo shoot from the article over at Slate.  You can read that here, if you're curious.  Once it was clear that the cigarettes and cigars where not real, and that the effects were added post production, I let myself stare for just a little while.  I realized that I was a little mortified and a little attracted by the images.  They're beautiful!  They're hideous.  I wouldn't want my 7 year old to look at them.  A friend of mine once told me, "you never know how dirty the lyrics to a song really are until you've heard them sung by a child."  The voice in your brain that screams at the inappropriateness of these images should be screaming at the inappropriateness of smoking, in general.

If we're disturbed by children smoking, why do we not seem similarly outraged when an adult does it?  It isn't just a bland "well, they're too young" that will fully suffice here.  What if the child was holding guns?  

Don't worry.  I haven't preached about much yet, and I am not starting here.  This isn't a post about anti-smoking.  This is a post about the things we do without thinking about it.

CNN ran an article a couple of days ago entitled "Why Americans are dying earlier than their international peers."  The article was describing the research of the National Research Council. The NRC learned that Americans were dying sooner than in other high-income democracies.  The research is troubling. 

The data shows that "Americans have the highest prevalence of AIDS in the group. Seniors are at a greater risk of developing and dying from heart disease. And our children are less likely than children in peer countries to reach their fifth birthday."

It took them 18 months, but after convening a panel of experts, they think they can tell us why.  The answer:

Though Americans know what's "good" for them, few act on it. Although we are less likely to smoke and drink heavily than our peers, we consume more calories, have higher rates of drug abuse, are less likely to use seat belts and are more likely to use guns in acts of violence, according to the report. 

I can't fully bring myself to act shocked.  

Resolutionists

1/4/13

A very good friend of mine is a self proclaimed gym rat.  He goes everyday, sometimes twice a day, and stays for hours.  I envy him his dedication.  It's easy to keep doing something you love, he'd say.  This time of the year, he gets a bit cranky, though.  He's used to normal traffic of the gym and, with all of the people with fresh New Year determinism, it's hard to find a place to park or a free piece of equipment.  He calls these folks "the Resolutionists."  These seasonal health freaks who will slow down, and then stop coming all together sometime between now and mid-March.  Mostly, he's of the opinion, I think, that they're just in the way of the serious gym members.

----


I started this post about New Years resolutions, and I never followed through on finishing it up.  It was going to be about how we pick this time of the year to make changes to our lives that are deep and meaningful.  I couldn't finish it.  I think that might be symbolic somehow.  So here it is in its undoneness; along with a promise to stop making resolutions that don't last the year.

Being back in full swing after the holidays does have its perks.  John Stewart is back.  Last night he delivered this awe inspiring message about trying to have a conversation about gun control.  I think he's onto something.  I've missed him.  I've missed you guys, too.  Here's the clip, if you're someone who sleeps instead of watching late night television.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Happy New Year!

Thanks for checking in.  I've been too somber.  It's time for a little happy.  Happy New Year!

I wish you all the love and joy your heart can hold, with just a little spill over.  Marinate in the absolutely exquisite nature of connection and community.  Go ahead!  Just get prune-y from sitting in it!

Love to you,

Lynn