The Daily Wiley

"Chris, we just listened to the Decline. We have to talk." - Message from Wiley last night (after song by Annie, "We love Chris and he loves you, giggle, giggle," bravo, and did I hear Ben in the background? I did, didn't I.)

It is normal to want to talk to someone you're close to after listening to NOFX's 1999 EP - which, as I'm sure you all know, is just one really long song that rules.



Miles and I once listened to it over and over again on our way to the beach, in the limpid summer sunshine, long before the breaking point. (The breaking point came at 5 am when we decided we were too tired not to not leave and left and had to sleep in an empty parking lot.)

Anyway, did it give you some ideas, Wiley? Do you want to learn to play trombone? Do you want to listen exclusively to late 90's punk and ska from now on? You've heard everything else and there's nothing better? No Use for a Name? The Dead Milkmen? LAGWAGON?!?!?! Greg Graffin's new book, Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World without God?

Tell me. I support you always. For now:

Inspector Krevin

Our undercovers dick has unearthed some serious blogs. Why is there a conspiracy of silence on these?

hussey Leo: great attic, great art.

Voms I Have Known TOM OPALAK?!?!

Also, I like Chocolate Bicycle, from Annie's blog.

And my own seacret: Langer!

So many good blogs! I hope they add more hours to the day soon, it already takes me a week to read the morning news.

Broken Prhombus

Oops! Everyone, I forgot I promised the famous online director of the hippest wedding magazine, The Knot, that I'd read Middlesex at some point, so that's what I'm going to do before getting to your borrowed books. It'll give me an excuse to call him and harass him.

The angry unemployed of the 1930s

A long one but a good one from the International Socialist Review:

The Unemployed Movement of the 1930s

Some inspiring history, especially if you've spent the past few years profoundly underemployed and wondered what the hell a person is supposed to do about it. There may still be time to form "unemployed councils" to agitate, say, for extended benefits, or, better, for a real stimulus that creates jobs instead of going straight into employers' pockets. (Instead of spending, banks are hoarding, instead of hiring, companies are wringing higher productivity out of current employees.)

Note all the sectarianism on the left at the time, and the disgusting abuse of the Communist Party under Stalin's direction. Note also, though, how parties and groups ended up learning from the average people affected by the Depression, who became leaders themselves.

The movement catalyzed "a profound ideological shift regarding the unemployed," reversing the direction of blame for joblessness from the individual to society.

Looking at today, the author suggests, "Perhaps our generation’s defining struggle will be for health care...the climate may be ripe for 'under-insured councils.'"

There is in fact a March for Jobs in DC on October 2, that might be worth going to. It's crucial to think creatively, and realize that organized action can in fact win.

What do you say?

Books a-borrowed

I have stacks of books that belong to other people, some abandoned, some still on loan, I think. Ben, you know what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, most of your books are back at my parents' house, safe in a box under the bed.

The point is, I'm going to read them, the ones I brought to NM with me. Then I'll let everyone know if they're any damn good:

Ben, I've already read The Thin Man, a rad detective novel - with about 100 movie spinoffs starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, all good - and The Marx Family Saga, which had, um, interesting punctuation.

City of Light, City of Dark, from Margaret Fleming. She lent this "comic-book novel" to me about 100 years ago, for some reason, and I think I'll go ahead and read it.

Two from Annie, who couldn't help but one-up her sister:

The Brooklyn Follies - more Auster, which is always good;

and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, a thriller by deceased Swedish Trotskyist Stieg Larsson. Pretty psyched.

The Known World. This one's from Danny, recommended to him by Eric. Did you even know I had this, Danny? I'll give it back to you if you give me back my Cuentos espanoles / Spanish stories Dover dual language book that you let Monica steal, goddamn you. Or my shitty little Oscar Wilde book, which I know you still have.

Lastly, The Orchard Keeper, actually a gift (I think?) from Sterling. The perfect thing to get me going back into some Cormac McCarthy I haven't read or want to reread.

First I have to finish my jaunt over F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's been a fruitful jaunt: The Great Gatsby still takes first, but Tender is the Night is coming up on it. And of course his short stories are witty and poetic.

Feel free to send me more of your books, or maybe just make recommendations. I promise to be a better book borrower from now on! So do your worst!

France: a new round of racism from Sarkozy

I had meant to bring some attention to this a while back:

Widespread Support For Banning Full Islamic Veil in Western Europe Pew Research Center

In July the French national assembly passed the ban. I thought this was all pure political cynicism by a sad and isolated Sarkozy, but I guess the old imp had some support: 82%, in fact.

I'm sharing because the issue comes up surprisingly often out on the party circuit.

Note that 65% of Americans disapprove.

Well, back to Sarkozy's villainy. His pathetic argument for the full veil ban - women's rights, secularism, security - is belied by the fact that he's an authoritarian bigot. He's recently ordered round-ups of illegal Roma, breaking up camps and stirring up memories of the Nazis. This, after a riot in which police fired on and killed a Gypsy* youth, reminiscent of riots and police killings there in 2005 and 2007. In 2005 he referred to poor immigrants as "scum" and said he wanted to hose down their neighborhoods.

I'd love to argue one way or the other, but I can't see very clearly whether lowest common denominator politics have legitimized fringe xenophobia, or if that fear is a reaction to something else (possibly the economy). But something must account for that number: 82%! I mean, that hardly leaves enough room for the people affected by the ban plus those who you'd think would side with them! I think what we can tentatively predict, at least, is that those numbers don't bode well civil rights in France. The government almost has a mandate for things like Gestapo-style roundups and crackdowns, this Roma affair possibly representing the first of them.

Come on, France! Qu'est-ce qui se passe??

*Associated Press says 'Gypsy' (capitalized) or 'Roma'. Christian Science Monitor article does not capitalize, and the article says that, in France, 'Roma' refers to foreign Gypsies, 'travelers' to French Gypsies. I like to go with AP, but I have no idea what the Roma themselves would like to be called.

Drink or die!

Perhaps some disappointing news: drinkers live longer than non, even heavy drinkers! Or it's cheering news, I don't know.

The study, by a University of Texas team, followed 1,824 oldish participants over 20 years. In that time, 69% of "never-drinkers" died, followed by 60% of heavy drinkers and 41% moderate.

Moderate drinking, by the way, is defined as having one to three drinks per day. Hey, does a fifth of whiskey count as "a drink?"