Twas the week before Christmas

Check out this blog post. It turns out that defending the use of torture at Christmas is awfully Grinchy.

Do you remember Knut? Knut was the adorable polar bear at the Berlin Zoo who became an international cuteness sensation by 1. being born in captivity and surviving, 2. doing so just as the internet decided it would devote 50% of space to animals doing cute things in videos. Anyway, Germany revealed itself to be crazy when there were multiple songs about Knut on the charts, and Knut appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair Deutschland. The Berlin Zoo had its most profitable year ever in its 163 year old history, and toy and book companies got in on the action. Knut was an industry unto himself. Okay, but then he grew up, and now is a huge killing-machine who people don’t think is cute anymore. Still, a fraught custody battle rages on between German zoos, and perhaps most disturbingly, Knut is addicted to human attention. He doesn't know that he's a polar bear, and he has become so used to the attention of people that he cries when no one is standing in front of his enclosure watching him. Can you relate? I don’t know if what Knut’s tale offers is merely a grave lesson on our culture of celebrity worship/discarding – the comparison with Britney Spears bears fleshing out - or something more central to our civilization, for example, the (ephemeral) value we place in youth, and beauty. Are youth and beauty the ultimate Ponzi scheme? PARSE THAT!

Good year, you guys. I guess President Bush thought so too? Check out this weird unnecessary thing, a Christmas video message from the Bushes. It is even more weird and unnecessary than you’d think a Christmas video message from the Bushes would be.

Winter Songs: The Chain, a nice group effort. And Second Hand News, for good measure. Sorry they aren’t topical, but you should enjoy them anyhow.

See you next year! Safe, wonderful holidays.

Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation

Bears outloud reading, now that corrupt politicians are shocking us anew with their corruption:

It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money; is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter’d your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves become the greatest grievance. Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do; I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of
this place; go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!

-- Oliver Cromwell (proroguing the Rump Parliament, April 20, 1653)

Over & Over

December is flying by, and I feel that we hit the ground running through the month with last week’s meeting; next week is the annual HRF holiday party already. I have sent out everyone’s amigo assignment so hopefully you are mulling over in depth what to give to your new friend. My understanding is that all that person wants for Christmas is you, or their two front teeth, or they saw mommy kissing santa claus or something. Some of you may be nervous about gift giving, but do not be. This party next week and the shared process of amigo invisible will warm the cockles of everyone’s hearts.

Holiday Songs: A holiday song metaphysically only (or is it just in connotation?) Linus and Lucy. And a search for Vince Guaraldi on brings this treat.

Winter Songs: Over My Head and Over & Over go together well, don’t they? I don’t just understand them, I overstand them. Winter weather may begin to call for a soundtrack less warm that FM, but these are sufficiently icy I think.

Ending Torture & Never Going Back Again

This was our big week! HRF organized and executed a meeting in DC where 12-14 retired Generals and Admirals met with key members of the transition team, Greg Craig (White House Counsel) and Eric Holder (Attorney General, former high school classmate of Gabor), and Mary DeRosa. The meeting was very productive, and the Generals felt they were really listened to. Media coverage of the meeting, including the history of this group, and how Human Rights First facilitated it all, was extensive and positive. Stories posted by AP and Reuters were picked up in a variety of newspapers, including International Herald Tribune, and radio shows, including NPR, and writers from the New York Times and Washington Post also wrote stories on the Generals. The blogosphere was flush with the story, and you may have seen a couple prominent television appearances: Rear Admiral John Hutson spoke on CNN on Wednesday, and last night Major General Paul Eaton made a splash on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Some quotes:

"Fundamentally, those kinds of techniques are ineffective," said John D. Hutson, a retired Navy rear admiral and former judge advocate general. "If the goal is to gain actionable intelligence, and it is, and if that's important, and it is, then we have to use the techniques that are most effective. Torture is the technique of choice of the lazy, stupid and pseudo-tough."

"We need to remove the stain, and the stain is on us, as well as on our reputation overseas," said retired Vice Adm. Lee Gunn, former Navy inspector general.

"If he'd just put a couple of sentences in his inaugural address, stating the new position, then everything would flow from that," said retired Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes, whose regiment in World War Two raised the American flag on Iwo Jima.

“It is (important that) the new president say up front that the United States is not going to engage in torture or enhanced interrogations,” retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, one of the participants in the meeting, said during an appearance on “CNN Newsroom.” Not only are such techniques generally ineffective, Hutson said, but they also “smear the good name of the United States, domestically and internationally.”

Wow, I’m glad those meetings went well, and we have ended torture [sorry, not yet]. It’s actually such a pleasure to hang out with the generals and admirals, whose humanity is as notable as their accomplishments. These are friends who recognize the importance of logistics to the success of a mission, and also see that those of us managing those details are thoughtful and engaged on these, and many other, issues. Lots of great company this week! (Thanks also to Kevin for being some of it.)

Times are really tough, and since I have no power in this world, I instead turn to the promotion of video clips that make me smile or laugh (sometimes out loud.) Invest in your LOLk! Here’s Dwight’s perfect crime, a monologue that has been cemented in my memory by Liz’s recitation of it.

Autumn Songs: In honor of my week spent in the DC metropolitan area, I give you Silver Spring(s). Shout out to Montgomery County! That is where I am from, but is it home? I tend to think that, rather than the hometown where your parents arbitrarily decided to be when you were born, a decision over which you had no agency, the place where you make your life is home. In any case, Montgomery County is filled with a bleak nostalgia, more or less enjoyable, always weird. Related: Never Going Back Again. Touché, Fleetwood Mac.