The Philosopher of Life

Along the beach you watch for crabs,
Sideways thoughts that give you hope
In a desert zone licked by not yet
Saltless water, thick enough to tread on.

I am studying you studying her:
Your wife, by lamplight,
Tired of her home.

They comfort you, the homely crabs,
Catching the stick you extend,
Their sidelong society your balm.

Nature

Are human beings natural? Are cities natural? Is it natural to kill? Is it natural to ignore the suffering of strangers? What is the relation between ethics and nature? What should dictate the form that ethics take? How do we determine what's dictated by genetic predispositions? Should political decisions have anything to do with ethics?

What is the relation between happiness and contact with wild places? What is the relationship between unhappiness and intense urbanization? Why is there such a tension between industry and nature?

Under what circumstances is killing justified? What is the difference between killing a human being and killing a chimpanzee? Is there a difference between killing an infant and killing an aged person? Is it permissible to kill nonhuman animals?

Top of the pops

American Music Club "San Francisco"
The Band "Music from Big Pink"
The Beatles "Abbey Road"
The Beautiful South "Miaow"
The Clash "London Calling"
Elvis Costello "My Aim Is True"
Joni Mitchell "Blue"/"Hejira"
Randy Newman "Sail Away"
Prefab Sprout "Steve McQueen"
Jonathan Richman "Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers"
The Roches "Keep on Doing"
Rolling Stones "Beggars Banquet"
Rufus Wainwright eponymous

When it's late and I'm not quite awake

That's when there is faint music, a sense of longing, and the tug of recollections. I rouse myself, move to the front windows, look out on silent streets. And am wonderfully solitary.

Clementines

Some people know I love clementines. This is why Ken Olsen is a man I admire. He grows clementines and other things on his twenty acres in Lindsay, California.The clementines he grows are magnificent and I bought five pounds last Saturday from the woolly-haired guy who helps out at Ken's Ferry Plaza stand.

Ken educated me about the soft spots and the black spots one sometimes finds on his fruit. But I can't remember the details.

Crucifiction

I am back.

Rendition

When the United States's political and military leaders decide to pass a prisoner to a foreign government, why do they do so? Do they do so because, as spokesmen for the United States government claim, foreign governments possess linguistic and cultural skills that enable them to better understand prisoners? Do they do so with confidence in the formal agreement that these prisoners will not be tortured?

When the New York Times quotes Nabil Fahmy, the Egyptian ambassador to the United States, as saying, "We do interrogations based on our understanding of the culture. We're not in the business of torturing anyone," perhaps the New York Times should also quote the following passage found on the United States Department of State website:

The Government [of Egypt] respected human rights in some areas; however, its record was poor, and in many areas serious problems remained. [. . .] The security forces continued to mistreat and torture prisoners, arbitrarily arrest and detain persons, hold detainees in prolonged pretrial detention, and occasionally engage in mass arrests. Local police killed, tortured, and otherwise abused both criminal suspects and other persons. [. . .] (http://tinyurl.com/b4py4)

I have to wonder, when the United States government founds claims about connections between Iraq and international terrorist groups on the testimony of a prisoner remanded to Egyptian custody, whether the government is hoping that a certain kind of material will result from interrogations carried out by a country with a "poor" human rights record.

Please see this excellent article: http://tinyurl.com/dgnoy

For my birthday

I'd like a day without anger (my own, that is).

The Paris story

It's progressing.

Adolescence

A friend told me the other day that I make decisions very quickly and never revisit them. Another friend said that I suffer from insecurities arising out of repeated failures to complete big projects. But what about the little projects I fail to complete? Still, there's hope: my dad says I look good with short hair.

Hope

Maybe if I read more Thoreau, write the Paris story, finish the first fifty pages of the business book, string Rachel's beads and ride my bike more often things will get better.

I had a thought yesterday: my dissertation.

What I Feel

My life is slipping away from me.

Blue Balls

http://blueballfixed.ytmnd.com/

A phrase I hate

You have 0 unread messages.

Gallic Truths

Myth: Parisians are fashionable.

Truth: Parisians don't wear shorts and t-shirts.


Myth: Les trottoirs sont crottoirs.

Truth: Les crottes sont dans les egouts et les caniveaux.


Myth: Everyone smokes.

Truth: Guillaume does not, but many do.


Myth: The French are mean and snooty.

Truth: The French are short and have big noses.

Torture and Killing in Afghanistan

I talked to an MP who said that he was in charge of holding detainees and that the CIA would just come and take the detainees away. They would be like, “How many detainees do you have?” and he knew he has seventeen detainees but the OGA would be like, “No, you have sixteen,” so he’d be like “All right. I have sixteen.” And who knows where that detainee went.

-Account of Officer C, 82nd Airborne Division
Human Rights Watch
"Leadership Failure: Firsthand Accounts of Torture of Iraqi Detainees by the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division"
http://hrw.org/reports/2005/us0905/4.htm#_Toc115161403

Note: The soldiers with whom Human Rights Watch spoke had served as guards in Afghanistan and had observed interrogations at FOB Tiger in Iraq, and said that civilian interrogators at those locations had also used coercive methods against prisoners. These interrogators were always referred to by the U.S. military abbreviation OGA, which stands for “Other Government Agencies.” It was assumed that such persons were with the CIA, but because OGA also includes other civilian agencies, the soldiers with whom Human Rights Watch spoke said they could not be sure.

Today is World Vegan Day

Take a vegan to lunch today. Then eat him.

Pop

My new favorite tunes. http://www.thepartyparty.com/

A friend replies, number 14

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

feeling shame


Where would you like to live?

Paris


What is your idea of earthly happiness?

hiking in Central Italy


To what faults do you feel most indulgent?

faults due to generosity


Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?

Julien Sorel
Zeno Cosini (La coscienza di Zeno)


Who are your favorite characters in history?

Socrates
Montaigne


Who are your favorite heroines in real life?

a few witches


Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?

Natascia Rostova (War and Peace)
la Sanseverina (La Chartreuse de Parme)


Your favorite painter?

Piero della Francesca


Your favorite musician?

Mozart



The quality you most admire in a man?

generosity


The quality you most admire in a woman?

generosity


Your favorite virtue?

generosity


Your favorite occupation?

walking


Who would you have liked to be?

myself (with some corrections)

Poem 22

To hear a gong above the sound of wheels
Is impossible. He twitches, a sudden birdlike
Distancing from the city. Hammers of horn
Fall on keys, resonate, are hushed.

From the ocean come orchestras,
To the ocean oil and ash. And from the lip
Of the volcano a faint rumble--then silence.