Archive for August, 2005
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
[September 9, 2005: UPDATE ~ Visit here [1] to learn what the Southern Center for Human Rights is doing to help loved ones get in contact with their incarcerated relatives.]
[2] Apparently a riot did break out at Orleans Parish Prison. Authorities decided not to evacuate the prison, which later flooded with water from the broken levees. I've learned that it stands in one of the lowest lying areas of New Orleans, near the Superdome. Whether they have evacuated the prison or not, I cannot tell.
Michelle Malkin presents [3] thorough info on the riot. At least as far as it is possible to keep abreast of some very troubling news. The ABC page she linked to is now dead. A quick search of the ABC website resulted in 0 hits.
As I learn more, I will post it here.
[4] [UPDATE: Prisoners being evacuated from Orleans Parish Prison, Wednesday, August 31, 2005. Glad to see the mayor decided to do the right thing.....finally.]
[1] http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/4761.php
[2] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/orleans_parish_prison.jpg
[3] http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003438.htm
[4] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/orleans_parish_prisoners.jpg
Posted in Katrina | 16 Comments »
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
[1] Why do we feel compelled to judge others living in dire conditions?
Do we honestly believe we would behave differently when faced with the exact same conditions?
And since the majority of images I have seen on CNN of the so-called "looters" appear African-American, I should reword my previous question.
Do we white folks honestly believe we would behave differently if we had spent the last 36 hours on our roofs, only to wade through petrochemically laden flood water to arrive at a Walgreens and say, "gosh, I need water. I don't know when I will get fresh water again. And who knows about food. But I don't steal!"
Right.
And what of the quick and long decisions, regret, guilt? Drowned in a flood of media hysteria and convenient forgetting and ratings everyone loots with a gleeful heart. But we forget that as long as rampant poverty exists people will meet their needs in whatever manner possible.
Does anyone really feel better about themselves watching people who have lost everything lose a little more by stealing? And if we really cared about looting, should not our tax dollars have been getting EVERYONE out of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who could not get out on their own? Then recovery personnel could spend money on cleaning up the area, instead of saving people and stopping those damp, thieving, pesky, hungry, people.
Yes, I know about the computers and the TVs. But food will spoil. Experts claim New Orleans won't have full electrical capacity until September. At the earliest. I won't even mention the mold growth problem and whatever environmental damage occurs because of the brackish, polluted water from Lake Pontchartrain swallowing up the inventory of corporate convenience. Inventory they can write-off as part of their insurance claim
My short-term solution. Walgreens and Rite-Aid, Target, Walmart. All of them need to donate everything from their stores.
"We ask the police to let victims of this terrible tragedy pass through our doors unimpeded. Walgreens (or Target. WalMart, etc.) is officially donating all items in our stores to the victims of this terrible, terrible situation. We stand with them in their time of need and pray for their health and the recovery of everyone during this horrible time." Then they provide the addresses of all stores donating items.
My long term solution requires more work on our parts.
If, as Socrates claimed, the mark of a moral society can be found in how it treats its most dispossed members, then we have failed. We have failed the poor and the elderly and the children left behind to suffer in the wake of Katrina. We have failed our own children as they watch us get hopped up on hysteria and anger over trivial items like televisions and food and water.
Ultimately we have failed ourselves. We choose to fall prey to our baser instincts. From our armchairs we moralize about situations we thankfully may never have to experience. In so doing we visit a wrath upon the survivors Katrina could never have accomplished.
We also foster the seeds of hatred in our heart. We loot from our compassion to feed our fear. In the end, we are the biggest losers of all.
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/armchair_moralists_2.jpg
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Katrina, Truth | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
[1]
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/what_can_i_say.jpg
Posted in Katrina, Weblogs | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
Here is the Katrina wiki [1]. The wiki functions like a clearinghouse of information and provides links for support and relief, numbers to locate missing persons and other stuff.
Slidell, LA is currently covered in water. For more information check out this Slidell Hurricane Damage Blog [2].Calling the devastation “total”, [State Senator Tom] Schedler said, only slabs remain where dozens of houses were blown down and several feet of water remain in the Slidell Memorial Hospital on Gause Boulevard as well as throughout the old town area off U.S. 11. The BBC News has this heartwrenching [3], but sadly, not surprising, story of Carolyn Moore. She and her husband lost their home last year in Hurricane Charley. Without insurance at the time, she has been unable to repair her home. She and her husband continue to live in temporary village put up by FEMA. "There are no homes available for rent and what are available is way beyond my own or my husband's income. I'm 60, he will be 65, and I don't think they really care if you are in the street or not.
"There's over 2,000 people in this park and there's no one here that really has anywhere to go."
[snip]
Mrs Moore said she felt for those people affected by Hurricane Katrina.
"I hate to see them go through what we've gone through. It's devastating, it's heartbreaking, it makes me cry.
"They [the authorities] say 'we're standing by to get in there to help these people'. That will go on for maybe a few days and then all of a sudden you are left hanging.
"They will say 'go here, go there, try this, do that' and you do all that, just for them to look at you and go 'you need more money than we can give you'.
"And what do you do? Where do you go, how do you live your life?
"How do you pick up now and try to start again, when you have nothing to start with?"
[1] http://katrinahelp.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
[2] http://slidell.weblogswork.com/
[3] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4198422.stm
Posted in Katrina, Weblogs | Comments Off
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
(Link [1])Looters filled industrial-sized garbage cans with clothing and jewelry and floated them down the street on bits of plywood and insulation as National Guard lumbered by.
Mike Franklin stood on the trolley tracks and watched the spectacle unfold.
"To be honest with you, people who are oppressed all their lives, man, it's an opportunity to get back at society," he said.And the worst quote (from the same link):At a Walgreen's drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers.
When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, "86! 86!" — the radio code for police — and the crowd scattered.
Denise Bollinger, a tourist from Philadelphia, stood outside and snapped pictures in amazement.
"It's downtown Baghdad," the housewife said. "It's insane. I've wanted to come here for 10 years. I thought this was a sophisticated city. I guess not."I guess Denise would comport herself differently when faced with the prospect of no food, water, electricity, and, well, death.
[Note to self: As I read the emerging looting reports I feel like the news wants me to think of this situation as though I were in a zoo. Like "wow, look at the natives in their nattturralll habitat!!!!" Despicable.]
[1] http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050830/ap_on_re_us/katrina_looting
Posted in Katrina, Racism | Comments Off
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
By my estimation the big lefty blogs (Wonkette [1], Alas, A Blog [2], Majikthise [3]) remain silent about Katrina. Only Bitch, Ph. D. [4] makes mention of Katrina.
[UPDATE 4:16 PM 08/30/05: I stand corrected! Elise writes, "Actually, Ezra Klein, Digby, Atrios, Echidne of the Snakes and Kevin Drum all posted information on Katrina pretty quickly - and those are all pretty major liberal blogs!"]
The big righty blogs (Michelle Malkin [5], Confederate Yankee [6]) have been blogging for some time about relief efforts, the break in the levee and a bunch of other stuff.
Instapundit [7] makes a small mention of a day dedicated to raising money for the relief efforts. (Thursday) Boing Boing [8] (neither of which I would describe as particularly left, more curiosity shop) has before and after the levee break shots of NO.
Only one blog, and a conservative one at that, makes mention of the fate of the prisoners housed at Orleans Parish Prison. Last I heard Orleans Parish was under water. I did a google search on "Katrina" and "Orleans Parish Prison." Nothing.
Michelle Malkin made a swipe at looters. Maybe she can survive without water or food while waste infested water rose up around her. But me, left without water or electricity, I'd steal Diet Pepsi and Ho-Hos, too.
As for my dear, dear, liberal blogs, who knows. Are we waiting for something to say? Someone to respond to?
And what about those 6000+prisoners?
[UPDATE: The looting photos are coming across the wire now. The fact that three photos show seemingly African-American people -one with a bucket of beer - speaks volumes to me. Visual politics and poverty intersect ending in racism. Never mind that the 20% of the people left behind are the poorest of the poor and/or living with chronic illness and/or impairments that making driving in a car for 22 hours to escape Katrina impossible.
The story of the poor people of Mississippi and Alabama and Louisiana taking the physical hits to their bodiesremains, and will continue to remain, under the rug. Ignored. Just like the prisoners in Orleans Parish Prison.
But in the end does anybody really give a shit if a grocery store loses beer and soda and water and food to people stranded and starving and dying?]
[1] http://jaysennett.comwww.wonkette.com
[2] http://www.amptoons.com/blog
[3] http://www.majikthise.typepad.com/
[4] http://bitchphd.blogspot.com/2005/08/helping-those-in-need.html
[5] http://www.michellemalkin.com/
[6] http://jaysennett.comwww.confederateyankee.mu.nu
[7] http://instapundit.com/archives/025232.php
[8] http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/30/katrina_media_evacua.html
Posted in Katrina, Weblogs | 6 Comments »
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
During their first trial "Transgender Panic" was the line of defense being used by attorneys of Gwen Araujo's accused murderers .
During the second trial "Transgender Panic" appears again. Of the prosecutor's assertion of murder, one of the defense lawyers said [1]:The heart of this case is phony and a sham and perjurious and false and deceptive.Gwen Smith stomached [2] a day of this heartless, cockless crap.After lunch it was Thorman, the attorney for Michael Magidson. That was a heaping, steaming, pile of cow flop. You know, Gwen Araujo did such horrible things to those guys. If she’d only have apologized instead of deceiving them, she’d probably be alive today.Pardon me while I, well, do something unpleasant.Upon returning home, she turned to Beatrix Kiddo aka The Bride.So anyway, fifteen hours after waking up, I made it home. A couple hours after that, I was watching the bride [Kill Bill] do nasty things to Elle Driver, which was after she did nasty things to Bill’s brother [Kill Bill 2].
Somehow, it just fit.Indeed, it does.
Anybody interested in cock punching the defense lawyers [we can save the Hattori Hanzo for the accused]? In the mobile home of our choice?
[1] http://www.jenburke.com/?p=280
[2] http://www.gwensmith.com/weblog/weblog.html
Posted in Queer | 4 Comments »
Monday, August 29th, 2005
Working on Self-Organizing Men [1] has underscored for me even more the power language has to exclude or include. Are the words "gay" or "lesbian" or "transgender" inclusive of people of color? Is it enough to say "lgbt people of color welcome"?
James Earl Hardy (of B-Boy Blues fame) recently [2] saidGay comes with a lot of baggage that really has nothing to do with me as a black man. It doesn't speak to me in anyway. Most people, even people of color, use it because it is convenient. I think same gender loving is very affirming.So our failure is a failure of marketing in some ways. We remain unable to effectively communicate our message. "We are racially inclusive" gets lost in the mix.
We don't listen. We simply monitor our meetings and caucuses, add "people of color" to lgbt, because we should do that. Then we clasp our hands in despair when everything remains the same.
Same gender loving folks are right not to come. But we've gotten what we really want. Everything looks different ("We reaaaachhh ouutttttt but they just don't cooomeeee!") yet remains exactly the same.
White queers remain front and center of the queer universe all because we refused to concern ourselves with three words.
Same Gender Loving.
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/jay_sennetts_blog/2005/06/call_for_submis.html#more
[2] http://blackvoices.aol.com/black_history_education/headlines_features/books/canvas?id=20050629222209990001
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Racism | Comments Off
Thursday, August 25th, 2005
I've learned much since I sang [1] the praises of Publish and Be Damned [2] awhile back.
To truly be considered a publisher by the industry, one needs to own the ISBN number, which can be purchased by R.R. Bowker. Thusly, while Scott Turow may own the copyright to his works, his publisher (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux / Time Warner Books) owns the rights to said books. The publisher determines when and how the book will be distributed, whether new editions will be published, and how much Turow receives in royalties.
In all but a few cases (Nora Roberts, J. K. Rowling), writers are tenants on the publishing plantations of the world. Writers, like muscians, are intellectual sharecroppers.
The writers write the words the publishers then distribute. In return, the publisher may offer money up front and percentage of profits after expenses. Up-front money ranges from a few thousand dollars to a million. Publishers expect a book or books in return for this money. They may also offer royalties, a percentage of the book's sales after expenses.
Royalties range (as of what I know today) from 1% to 10%. And the 10% offering comes from small, liberal independent presses, not the big publishers.
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/jay_sennetts_blog/2005/07/selfpublishing_.html#more
[2] http://jaysennett.comwww.pabd.com
Posted in Features, The Good Life | Comments Off
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005
It's Circus Side Show Freak [1] Time, Ladies and Gents! Sundance is screening TransGeneration (TM): Four College Students Changing More Than Their Majors!!
Don't waste your time.
Do spend time on The Aggressives: Black, Aggresive Butch Culture. Ya can learn something.“The Aggressives” documents the lives of six very different women, each of whom identifies herself with the concept of aggressives. The street word is AG, a term popular among women of color to describe females very much in touch with their masculinity. Historically, the words used to describe such women have been butch, passing woman, bull dagger, bull dyke, and stud. AG has joined this corner of the language of gender expression, as a positive word that these women use to communicate both empowerment and community…(Hat tip to Daily Dose of Queer [2])
[1] http://www.sundancescreenings.com/transgeneration.htm
[2] http://jaysennett.comwww.dailydoseofqueer.com
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Monday, August 22nd, 2005
Nick has written a response to my praise with a lovely piece [1] on his blog [2].
After dismissing my praise of him and writing about how he isn't really a transman, he concludes:
I take a step back and start to understand that my gender is still a work in progress. My comfort lately comes from accepting that it's a work in progress rather than jumping for definitive answers, from embracing the apparent contradictions rather than trying to explain them all away and fit myself into one box or another. The label bothers me because it has a connotation - which, for all I know, it doesn't have for Jay - of having reached a conclusion. Rightly or wrongly, I interpret "transman" as meaning someone who has at least begun the process of transitioning, not at all an accurate term for someone who casts envious glances at drag kings with the nerve to cut their hair.
My friend, my gender remains a work in progess. Today my gender reflects bespoke suits and cufflinks. Seven years ago it reflected a more queer persona.
I've variously identified as a transsexual man, transman, man, ftm. Increasingly I see the terms "transman" and "transsexual" as political terms, not personal ones. "Am I trans enough" defined much of my identity over the last several years. But I see this question as a political one.
Personally I don't know if I am trans. I do know that I feel differently about myself and my body today than I did fifteen years ago. With each year I change. Some of the changes I bring about in the world. Others are part of the process of being human.
Nick writes that "transman" describes someone who has begun the process of transitioning. It is not one, he concludes, that is accurate "for someone who casts envious glances at drag kings with the nerve to cut their hair."
If Nick chooses to not identify as transman he can. I will say that transitioning as the hallmark of transman seems arbitrary and dangerous. Of course all labels reflect arbitrary decisions. But they also become dangerous because their very arbitrary nature sets up a pure-impure dynamic. Real transmen transition. Real transmen take hormones. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Trans can also be about attitude, internal feelings, thoughts and so on.
Reality remains one of our most deliciously constructed and overrated fictions.
In my personal truth Nick can claim the label transman and never cut his hair and cast envious glances at drag kings. After fifteen years of kicking around transman, I've decided anyone can claim the term.
Coming to grips with the feelings and thoughts and social dynamics of gender remains one of the most difficult of human journeys. All deserve smooth travels, unfettered by unneeded drama and judgement.
Nick is also free to not claim the term. The fact that I need him to says everything about me and nothing about him. I need transmen to be out about pregnancy. Not that I would ever get pregnant. I just believe in supporting as broad a range of human behavior as possible.
The blogosphere supports just such possibility. The neat thing about words like transman and blogs come about when someone who identifies with Nick says, "well, yes, I _am_ a transman." And Nick gets to remain Nick.
Transman or not. Transitioning or not. Nick is still brave. And the last time I checked, bravery encompasses all genders.
[1] http://www.livejournal.com/users/ksej/86532.html
[2] http://www.livejournal.com/users/ksej/
Posted in A Bespoke Body, Self-Organizing Men | Comments Off
Friday, August 19th, 2005
Wonderful. Brave. Nick Kiddle has been [1] documenting [2] his pregnancy [3] and thoughts about abortion [4] at Alas [5].
And in any case, I'm hardly a typical man. I've considered taking hormones to make me look and sound a little more male, but I never wanted surgery. I was born with a female body, and no matter what surgery I undergo, it's never going to be capable of all the things a male body can do. I've made my peace with that fact, and I can appreciate all the female things it can do as a kind of compensation. If it weren't for my female parts, I wouldn't be getting this baby, and I happen to believe that being able to feed said baby using just my own body is a skill worth having.
Read on [6].
UPDATE: All I will say about Nick Kiddle is I think his choices are awesome. He is doing something that truly frightens many transmen/ftms. He appears to have placed himself right in the center of the so many conundrums of our bodies and lives. Much needed and truly liberating.
[1] http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/07/25/abortion-pre-roe/
[2] http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/07/27/femininity-and-motherhood/
[3] http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/07/15/im-glad-youve-decided-not-to-kill-it/
[4] http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/07/12/pro-choice-and-pregnant/
[5] http://jaysennett.comwww.amptoons.com/blog
[6] http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/08/19/lady-madonna-baby-at-your-breast/
Posted in Self-Organizing Men | 6 Comments »
Friday, August 19th, 2005
I received a great suggestion to my Call for Submissions: Self Organizing Men [1].
Where I wrote:
"If you partner with women, how have you come to terms with liking your partners to act sexually submissive, particularly if you identify as male/man most of the time?"
Should now read:"If you partner with women AND like your partners to act sexually submissive..."
Thanks to a reader for this suggestion.
[1] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/jay_sennetts_blog/2005/06/call_for_submis.html#more
Posted in Man | Comments Off
Wednesday, August 17th, 2005
From Crimethinc [1]:
[2]
[1] http://jaysennett.comwww.crimethinc.com
[2] http://jaysennett.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/poster_1.jpg
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Man, Truth | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, August 17th, 2005
[This piece is dedicated to Ona Marae, who has, in the last month: had her computer take an extended dump, moved into a house with no shower, had the shower repaired, only to find her bathroom flooded the next morning. She is looking forward to blogging again soon.]
From a self-described dedicated lurker to this blog:I know there's often not a lot of love lost between some academics & some members of trans communities, but I'd like to hear your take on what some of the problems/miscommunications are between academics who talk about trans issues and transfolk who talk about trans issues. I'm an Academic Feminist myself, but also one with some gender identity issues of my own, so I find it hard not to be sympathetic to a lot ofdifferent sides in the conversation. Sometimes this makes things quite confusing.This request got me thinking hard.
I waded through much bunk in my head and came to following conclusions:
Posted in Anti Assclownery, Queer | 11 Comments »
