Devlin-McAliskey

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews Q

2012-01-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“The Cloud Minders” See this for a plot summary.

This episode is basically about privilege. You could also mention national oppression, but privilege seems more appropriate (“elitism” is also very accurate). At one point Spock says: “this troubled planet is a place of the most violent contrasts. Those who receive the rewards are totally separated from those who shoulder the burdens. It is not a wise leadership.” You could also use the phrase “environmental racism.”

There is a scene where torture is being used. Although Kirk and Spock make it very clear they and the Federation won’t stand for that, the planet which is witnessing the use of torture by the government is IN the Federation. The torture is stopped and Kirk ends up leaving the planet when he is ordered to.

So, it is largely about inequality. At the end it appears that progress is being made, and there are moves towards equality.

I give it one star out of five.

"The Savage Curtain” See this for a plot summary.

This episode contained a lot of political or at least sort of political stuff.

At the end, there is the question, from an alien culture’s point of view (without these concepts)- which is stronger, Good or Evil?

The alien concludes that both use the same methods, and achieve the same results. In the battle that the alien had just watched, as far as I could tell, the methods were largely the same, although one fourth of Kirk’s team tried to resolve the conflict non-violently and was killed by the other side. There’s a large amount of truth that in war, most methods are used by both sides. The majority of the time, I’d say there’s no problem with that- the problems arise with things like torture and intentionally killing innocent civilians. In response to a series of sectarian murders of Catholics in south Armagh, some republicans (likely the PIRA (now known simply as the IRA)) killed 10 innocent (and possibly ANTI-sectarian) Protestant civilians. That was incredibly wrong (it was also the sort of thing the IRA absolutely or almost absolutely never did). As far as results go, there’s usually-always some (at the very least) large differences (I think you have a good idea of what I consider “Good” and what I consider “Evil,” so I won’t explain that here).

Some other items worth mentioning:

1) Lincoln. In general I have pretty good thoughts about Lincoln. I’m reading an article about how he was friendly to labor and got along via letters with Karl Marx. Although he wasn’t an abolitionist, he leaned in that direction for years before the Emancipation Proclamation- he often was critical of slavery and as President took some earlier steps in the direction of ending slavery.

2) There is one conversation involving Lincoln and Uhura which at first I thought was problematic in a racist way, but a friend convinced me it was was basically saying that the 23rd Century was more enlightened than the 19th Century.

I give it three stars out of five.

“All Our Yesterdays” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.

“Turnabout Intruder” See this for a plot summary.

There are a few things I wanted to note in this review.

First, it’s said that there are no female Captains. Kirk doesn’t disagree with her on this, although we know that in TOS there was one woman Captain and in ENT there was also a female Captain. It seems likely that even though she was kind of wrong, there WAS a big problem with equality for women in StarFleet (looking at the main characters of all the series also suggests that problem, although it’s only a very serious problem if we assume that in the future women will be half of the military instead of a minority of it)

There is one line that stands out- a woman says something about the “indignity of being a woman.” After looking at the definitions of the word “dignity,” I’m still not sure what she meant. It almost sounds as if she’s saying that women don’t deserve esteem or respect. I’ll be honest, I’m not as familiar with gender studies and feminist theory as I should be, but if that is what she’s saying, that’s obviously untrue, but beyond that statement I’m not sure what else to say.

We also are reminded that with one crime as an exception, the death penalty is abolished in the Federation. Connected with that, we see something sort of close to a mutiny by some officers, including Chekov and Sulu. That’s fairly inspirational.

This is the last episode of the series, and apparently they didn’t feel like doing something special. Anyway, I give it three stars out of five.

Sinn Fein Is Revolutionary

2012-01-06T13:41:00.000-08:00

I have frequently referred to Sinn Fein and/or republicanism in general as being revolutionary. This is based on the combination of the following:

1. I might have exaggerated a bit how left-wing SF is earlier in the post “The Spirit of Malcolm X” but there is probably a large majority between the socialists and those who might be called progressives in the American context. Certainly Sinn Fein Youth, whose politics today I’m fairly familiar with since I read many posts on their blog, is a left-wing organization.

In the 2002 General Election in the South, something like a third of SF candidates were either members, leaders, or staff of trade unions. In the European Parliament SF is a member of European Parliamentary Group “European United Left/Nordic Green Left.” In elections to the South’s Senate in 2007, SF and Labour had a voting pact.

If you say that SF is actually NATIONAL socialist, read this.

2. SF is very much in favor of gay liberation. There are details on that in the top third of this post.

3. SF is very anti-White Supremacist. There are details on that in this post.

4. When it comes to international relations, SF is generally very progressive, supporting the Palestinians, opposing the Iraq War, supporting trade-unionists in danger in Columbia, etc.

5. SF is very feminist. As far as I can tell, looking over the last 14 years between the 1998 Assembly elections and today, and giving weight to the more senior positions and offices, some large minority of SF officers and elected politicians are women, and no more than a very large minority of the membership is female, so although there is room for improvement (why is SF not around 50% female?), it’s better than most political parties.

SF has often campaigned in support of free child care.

Probably the best evidence that some very large majority of SF members are feminist is their position(s) on abortion (bear in mind, there would be a lot of SF members who are pro-life but nonetheless feminist).

1) In 1985, although it was apparently a very unrepresentative vote, SF did, for one year, adopt a pro-choice position.
2) Although Sinn Fein MLAs did vote for a Democratic Unionist Party motion, which opposed the extension of the Abortion Act to N. Ireland (abortion is almost completely illegal there). It’s not that simple. A member of the Women's Coalition proposed an amendment that radically changed the resolution so that it simply referred the issue to the Health-Care Committee for further research, discussion, and debate. SF members spoke (starts half-way through, you'll want to look at this to see who's who) and voted in favor of this, and when they spoke, they made it clear their party is not fully committed to the pro-life position.
3) In 2004 (possibly 2003, but I'm pretty sure 2004) SF Youth came within one vote of adopting a pro-choice position.
4) SF's current abortion position is that they support abortion when the life or health of the mother (I think that might also apply to the fetus as well) is at risk, in cases of rape or incest (in the 2002 Abortion referendum in the South, SF also were okay with abortion when the woman is suicidal). They also feel very strongly about not criminalizing women who have abortions.
5) They support “comprehensive sex education, full access to child-care and comprehensive support services, including financial support for single parents.”

That’s about it for describing SF’s radical politics on the “normal” political issues (or at least, with abortion in the Irish context, relatively radical). The next part is about the republican goal of a United Ireland that SF pursues, (often pursued in a way that si intertwined with the other goals mentioned above).

The unification of Ireland will in several ways be revolutionary (that is, if you add up everything, it would be considered revolutionary).

1) It will probably mean the complete end of “Civil-War politics.” That is, the two main parties in the South are politically descended from the two different sides in Ireland’s Civil War, and the unresolved nature of the Anglo-Irish conflict has contributed to them not getting along. Fianna Fail, the largest party in the Republic receives a lot of working-class votes that would normally go to the Labour Party, partly (or perhaps entirely) because they are seen as being more nationalist on the border issue than the second largest party, Fine Gael and also Labour. I wouldn’t be surprised if abortion is also an issue that helps send working-class votes to FF that would otherwise go to Labour. But the fewer reasons such voters have for voting FF instead of Labour, the better- some will say “I don’t like Labour on abortion, but that’s only one issue, so I’ll vote for them.”

2) As I explain in most of the last half of this it’s very unlikely that Protestants in a United Ireland will experience more than a small fraction of the nightmare that Catholics have experienced in N. Ireland. Today, there is about 5% of the Northern Protestants already know that there will be very little anti-Protestant bigotry. Over a period of time, probably one to ten decades, that figure will rise to something like 95%. As they realize they have nothing to fear, currently sectarian Protestants will become less so. The decline of that bigotry will eliminate divisions that weaken the working-class, the labor movement, and the Left. Normal politics will develop and you’ll see huge numbers of people stop voting for the more or less center-right Unionist parties, and start voting for Labour and/or left-wing parties.

So, all of this adds up to revolution, probably a very non-violent one (it’s VERY unlikely republicans would try to seize power, but there probably will be a fair amount of violence in the North for a while before and maybe a little bit briefly after partition ends). I should also link to another post where I propose a plan to end the conflict that will unite Ireland in a way that will probably minimize violence from Unionists.

(UPDATE 1/7/12 In at least one poem on my blog, I kind of had to use the word "revolution" to refer to the republican family's agenda. I just realized that my idea of how partition should be ended gradually erodes the point I was making in this post. Besides that, I'm still not 100% sure about using the word "revolutionary," but it's a LOT more accurate than "reformist.")

Racism

2011-11-30T11:34:00.000-08:00

This is amazing! (UPDATE 12/26/11 maybe not "amazing," but something close to that- as I mention below, their talk about re-writing the law will almost certainly make it even easier to prove they're racists, and I'm a bit surprised because I thought they would be smarter than that)

UPDATE 12/10/11
What will be really important is to see HOW the authors of that law will re-write it. I can't imagine them re-writing it in a way that won't be easy to condemn as even more racist than the original bill. Anyway, here is another article worth reading.

UPDATE 12/16/11 A news item from the Southern Law Poverty Center has some more important info.

Israeli Apartheid and Palestinian Civil Disobediance

2011-11-16T11:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I found a very interesting and encouraging article on the BBC web-site. It's about a civil disobedience action by Palestinians, which highlights the fact that Apartheid IS an appropriate term for Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Tom

UPDATE 11/17/11
I forgot to mention a few other things about using the term "Apartheid" when referring to Israel. I don't remember the details, but there are laws that make it very difficult for couples to live in Israel if one of them is from certain parts of the Middle-East and North Africa (and the other one is an Israeli citizen). (UPDATE 1/12/12 More on that here)

And it's not just buses that are basically segregated, there are also roads that are segregated, too.

And then there is the fact that the State is officially defined by a Jewish identity. People who support that should be asked if they think there will ever be an Arab-Israeli Muslim or Christian President or Prime Minister in Israel (according to the Israeli government at some point in recent years around 17% of Israel's population is Muslim). More generally, the Arab-Israeli population does experience a fair amount of inequality.

UPDATE 11/27/11
As the article I link to above says, Israel says that keeping Palestinians without permission outside Jerusalem is for security reasons. But instead of banning the small minority of Palestinians who Israel could credibly consider security risks, the burden is placed on all Palestinians to get permission. In a similar situation (both areas include natives and a settler populations of one sort or another) even the British didn’t go that far in relation to N. Ireland (they only banned a small number of nationalists, which was bad enough). The policy that Israel has is very similar to the S. African Apartheid laws about controlling the movements of Blacks and generally keeping them out of white cities unless they had permission to be there.

If security is the motivation, I’d also have to ask, what about extremist settlers? MANY of them FREQUENTLY clash with the Israeli security forces (in both the West Bank and in Israel), and it was a supporter of settlers who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Are any of them, for security reasons, not allowed into Jerusalem? I didn’t think so. (UPDATE 12/15/11 here's a recent article about this sort of thing)

So, security is not the reason. Bigotry is.

UPDATE 2/5/12 To be fair, SOME action is NOW taking place against the settlers, but it's new and seems pretty limited (and doesn't keep them out of Jerusalem, although this is a tiny step in the right direction). The article is here.

******

UPDATE 12/11/11 Juan Cole wrote a great essay about the Palestinians, largely aimed at the idea that their identity is invented and therefore they have no claim to Palestine.

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews P

2011-10-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews O

2011-10-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I have been more or less ignoring this- the need for me to become familiar with The Original Series. In general I don’t like much of what I’ve seen. In any case, I am now watching it and will be doing reviews of those episodes. I will be giving pretty low scores, probably no higher than three stars out of five- I just don’t like TOS.

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Elaan of Troyius” See this for a plot summary.

There is one bit of politics, bad ones, when Kirk says that except for Vulcan women, women are all illogical. Not an example of ST’s progressive politics.

I give it one star out of five.

“Whom Gods Destroy” See this for a plot summary.

There is a lot of political aspects to this episode.

The setting is a prison housing the few remaining, un-rehabilitated criminally insane. There’s not much said about what the prison is like, but there is a painless therapy machine that helps with rehabilitation, although in general it apparently makes people docile, and at the end, it seems to also destroy memories, which is very disturbing.

It centers on one prisoner, a former Captain of StarFleet. He had tried to use his ship to destroy a peaceful people’s planet, but his crew mutinied, something I find fairly inspiring. More generally he had become a Federation imperialist and used torture.

I give it two stars out of five.

“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” See this for a plot summary.

This is one of the most political episodes of all ST. There are two main themes, which kind of contradict each other, at least as I see it. The first theme is of a people fighting national oppression, dictatorship, and possibly genocide. The second is of two population groups that hate each other and end up killing everyone on their planet.

Although it isn’t completely clear this is the case, it seems very likely to me that the struggle Lokai was engaged in was for a good cause and probably conducted honorably. There’s talk of slavery of his people, followed by another form of inequality (probably comparable to Jim Crow in the American South). Genocide is mentioned as a goal of his oppressors, many of whom are on the verge of seizing power and creating a dictatorship.

At one point when Lokai is educating some of the Enterprise crew about his plant, he says “you don’t know what it would be like to to be dragged out of your hovel into a war on another planet- a battle that will serve your oppressor and bring death to you and your brothers.” It seems like that line was probably inspired by looking at who was being disproportionately placed in combat units during the Vietnam War (hint- it wasn’t affluent white people). That war was of great benefit to the military-industrial complex, and, if the US had been successful, there probably would have been other benefits for some more elements of the white population.

Regarding his use of violence, Lokai has a couple good lines:

“I led revolutionaries, not criminals- I demand political asylum”

and “why should a slave show mercy to the enslaver.”

Although it’s unclear if he means slave revolts in the past when his people WERE slaves, or if he means killing officials and leaders of the “Jim Crow” type of oppression they experienced after slavery (which could be questionable), it’s a good line.

The first of the two lines reminds me of how IRA POWs resisted criminalization.

At one point Bele, the government official hunting Lokai, says that Lokai wants “utopia in a day” in reference to Lokai’s grivences. Lokai says something about how he wasn’t that impatient and suggested that Bele would be happy if it took one hundred thousand years. It kind of reminds me of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” in which he told white Christian clergy members that there was nothing wrong with oppressed people wanting justice to develop rapidly in the very near future.

As I said there are sort of two themes that contradict each other. At least some of the StarFleet crew generally believe that Lokai and Bele are mirror images of hatred, although there are exceptions who are very open to what lokai has to say. But I believe the dominant and accurate theme is the one of national oppression. The hand-full of lines and imagery about the other theme, are, by themselves, good statements about hatred.

Lastly, Kirk once again, exaggerates how non-violent StarFleet is.

In general it is a very good episode, and I give it three stars out of five.

“The Mark of Gideon” See this for a plot summary.

There are a couple of political themes that should be mentioned.

The first is this thing that the Federation and StarFleet have about not taking no for answer when they try to establish a relationship with alien civilizations. It’s just wrong.

There is also the issue of population growth. I’m not as educated as I could be about the subject and am going to skip it.

I give this episode two stars out of five.

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews N

2011-09-22T09:56:00.001-07:00

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews M

2011-09-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

The anti-Apartheid Struggle and Republicans

2011-09-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned Apartheid S. Africa several times on my blog in some connection to the Republican Movement. I've been aware of four connections between the two groups in recent decades, and a couple more connections between the two have just surfaced, which I’ll get to soon (I'm not sure they are as confirmed as I would like them, but the source for the new info seems like a good source).

First, here are the four connections I’ve been aware of for some number of years

1) A plaque remembering the sacrifice of both anti-Apartheid and Irish Republican Prisoners of war, is on Robben Island, which is kind of a monument to the anti-Apartheid struggle. That info was found here.

2) In 1981, as IRA (and INLA) prisoners went on hunger-strike, there was talk among ANC Prisoners of War of going on a solidarity hunger-strike. That's taken from an on-line only article in The Nation, by Tom Hayden- it was published some time in 2004, or 2005, or 2006. I can't find it online. When I do I'll update this.

3) In 2005 the Minister of Intelligence for South Africa visited Ireland and compared what he did as a member of the ANC's military wing during the anti-Apartheid struggle with what IRA members did during the Troubles. You can read at least a little of an Irish Times article about this here. If all you read there is the brief free paragraph, reading this from a Sinn Fein publication will make it clear what the Minister meant with his comments in that brief intro of the Irish Times article.

4) In 1992 Nelson Mandela was on a British political talk-show and said that he supported the IRA. That information is found here (it's towards the bottom, says "mandela. and. ira").

There are some more pieces of information about this relationship. Those are found here, here, and here.

Tom

Taxes, the GOP, Texas, and Capitalism

2011-08-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

There's a couple recent opinion columns that should be read by as many people as possible. I figure that most people who would read this have already read those columns, but it can't hurt to do this post if it gets more exposure for the columns.

First is one by Harold Meyerson in the Washington Post. It's about how the GOP will raise your taxes if you're working- or middle-class. It's here.

The second one is by Paul krugman in the NY Times. It's about how Rick Perry's "economic miracle" in Texas is not a good model for the nation or other states, and is created on the backs of working people (i.e. low wages). It's here.

Tom

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews L

2011-08-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews K

2011-08-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews J

2011-08-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

The Orange Order- those sectarian bastards!!

2011-07-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I learned some new things about the Orange Order (for some history on the OO, see this). Members have been for some period of time attending funeral masses for Catholic friends (and also OO members who are senior officials of the Government have attended certain funerals such as the recent one for a Catholic police officer killed). A friend of mine said that, in the late 1990s the then leader of the OO, Robert Saulters, came out in support of Catholic parishioners being picketed and harassed by bigots. He (my friend) also said there were still a lot of bigots in the OO.

I don't think I'll be changing anything I've typed on this blog about the OO as there's probably still a majority who are more or less sectarian bigots (there is still a rule forbidding members from attending services at Catholic churches (see this article about how the rule IS in fact being enforced)), but I thought I should say something on this blog to acknowledge an apparent change in a positive direction.

(Another update from the BBC- the two OO members were cleared of breaking the rules by attending the funeral Mass)

Tom

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews I

2011-07-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews H

2011-06-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

Three More Poems

2011-06-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

Below are three more poems. For an explanation of how and why I "write" the poems, see this.

For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

“Nightmare on Bombay Street” based on “Stop Immigration” by No Remorse. Original lyrics are here.

1. Bombay St. was one of the main sites of the Aug. 1969 anti-Catholic pogroms (and one attempted pogrom) which are usually seen as the beginning of the conflict. During a period of a few days in Belfast, 1,505 Catholic families fled their homes (probably something like 18% of Belfast’s Catholic population, probably something like 1.8% of the North’s Catholic population). For more, see this.
2. The security forces largely worked with the loyalist mobs to invade Catholic areas.
3. Fenian is bigoted term for Catholic and also for republican, although republicans have adopted it as their own term.
4. Even moderate sources have compared aspects of the North with aspects of Nazi Germany. For example, about 6 years ago the President of Ireland compared the transmission of hatred of Catholics from one generation to another with the same regarding anti-semitism in Europe. She retracted it under pressure, but is basically right.
5. The first two lines of the 2nd verse were difficult for me to alter. I came up with two versions of that. The one that is in the body of the poem probably makes the most sense. Immediately below is the 2nd version. I can’t nail down to what extent this happened, but I'm pretty sure that before, during, or shortly after the pogrom some Protestants who had been supporting the civil rights movement sort of abandoned the nationalist community. Those two lines are:

“Do you remember When many Protestants were our allies?
If only Ian Paisley hadn’t come around, spreading his hateful lies”

Let me know if you think the couplet above is better than the one below.
6. The Unionist government was very upper-class and completely Protestant. As far as the civil rights movement, some good material is here.
7. A no-go was an area where the security forces could not easily enter.
8. 78% of this version is me, 22 is the original.
9. I give this poem four stars out of five.
10. UPDATE 6/19/11 The state compared to Nazi Germany is basically the unionists/Protestants state; the nationalists/Catholics were the ones being denied their rights.
11. UPDATE 6/27/11 This poem is not meant as an enodrsement of armed struggle since 1997.

They flooded into our streets in Aug. ‘69
The state and the loyalists actively combined
Swarmed into west Belfast because they hate fenians
Their state reminded many of Adolf Hitler’s in Berlin

Chorus
Stop the hate
We want truth and reconciliation
Stop the hate
We want a united working-class and nation

Do you remember When they won in the South and we thought we were free?
If only it could be that way How happy we would be
We had a Government of bigots, Puppets of the Protestant upper-class
They rejected our civil and human rights, so in ‘68 we arose en masse

chorus

It's time we built barricades, and created a no-go
Like a phoenix, from the ashes the Provisionals arose
British imperialism and Orange society created this mess
But we’ll win in the end, because the Provisionals are the best

Chorus

*******

“Take on the Klan” based on “Join the Klan” by “The Klansmen” original lyrics are here.

1. I’m not sure if “one nation” is the best way to put it, but I got it from a very progressive and anti-racist song by Sacred Reich (don’t read anything into their name) called “One Nation.” And the flame I refer to is supposed to be the flame of anti-racism, of unity.
2. The last two lines of the 2nd verse (I deleted the chorus) are about the “Battle of Hayes Pond.” I did one whole poem about that, with a lot of the background- you can find it here (it’s the third poem from the top).
3. Manning Marable was one of America’s very top scholars in African-American Studies. He passed away recently. There’s more of my thoughts on him, and links to some background here.
4. MLK is Martin Luther King.
5. I think I need to make this clear- this poem is about anti-racism in general, and you might say it leans away from violence (in a lot of cases I support anti-racist violence and have written poems about that, but this poem is different (as are a lot of others that use, for example, the word “fight”)).
6. I give this poem five stars out of five.
7. 44% of this version is me, 66% is the original.
8. UPDATE 6/19/11 Obviously there isn't a real Fourth Reich, but I know that a lot of fascists use that term when referring to their organization- and they have a VISION of the Fourth Reich, and that's being attacked, through education, dialogue, and public demonstrations. (12/11/11- Earlier I thought there was a problem with me conflating the KKK and the Nazis, but I'm pretty sure that's fine in this case)
9. UPDATE 6/19/11 As far as violence and non-violence, I almost forgot that the stuff about the Lumbee IS referring to a use of violence. But it was probably more acceptable to most anti-racists who stress non-violence then is the case with my SHARP poems. Anyway, the rest of the poem is about non-violence.

Be an anti-racist, fight for what is right
taking down the Nazis and their “Fourth Reich”
Looking for a day, when there will be no KKK
Battles fought all across the U.S of A.

One Nation, the people's flame
Saving the country is the final aim
The racist terror tried to make a stand
The Lumbee men took down the klan

Anti-Racist banners held up high
Manning Marable’s spirit will never die
The sun is rising in the blue sky
Join the MLK march as it passes by

*****

“Revolution with Honor” based on “Blood and Honour” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. For some reason I took a huge amount of time to try and make this one perfect. I think it’s pretty good.
2. This is about resistaance in general by the nationalist community.
3. As a community, the nationalists kind of were alone in the sense that they didn’t have a fraction of the global support they should have had, but they had some, especially from America.
4. This takes place in the very early 1970s. At that time it was fairly accurate to talk about second-class citizenship. Some of the civil rights demands hadn’t yet been fully realized, the Stormont government was still unwilling to share power with Catholics, Sinn Fein was still an illegal party, internment was used exclusively against Catholics and left-wing and/or republican Protestants, etc.
5. To a very large degree, the nationalists were honorable in their different forms of struggle. There was very little that could be called anti-Protestant and to a very large degree civilians were not targeted by the republican paramilitaries (only about .25% of the IRA’s operations intentionally resulted in civilian death).
6. It probably goes without saying, but Irish pride is different from white pride, although I have mixed info on how many nationalists in the North would say they have Irish pride.
7. During the conflict, the African National Congress had a good relationship with republicans and I readily assume, other nationalists. As far as the Sinn Fein and IRA part of that, see this.
8. I believe that the North, as it usually had low wages and a weak and divided labor movement, was (at least until mass violence broke out around 1970) an attractive place for investments.
9. The political centre of the nationalist community is, and probably sort of was back then, centre-left, and most believe/d in a secular state.
10. 76% of this version is me, 24% is the original.
11. I give this poem four stars out of five.

Achieveing freedom in the North of Ireland
Means marching and fighting for our demands
Even though we stand alone we will resist the Brits
For we won’t accept no second-class citizenship

(chorus)
For the revolution with honour
For our people and our pride
For the revolution with honour
British rule we will always defy

We look for inspiration to the ANC
When it comes to national liberation, we can all agree
Thousands have been killed at London’s hands
We will struggle and die to unite our Irish land

British imperialist hands around our community’s throat
Capitalists exploiting the North and sitting back to gloat
A democratic socialist Ireland, we will create
It won’t be no fucking Catholic state

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews G

2011-06-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

Irish Republican Army- Now in Poem Form!!

2011-06-03T10:34:00.001-07:00

(the title is inspired by something on The Simpsons)

Below are four more poems. I explain my kind of poetry here. For the rest of the poems, click on the "lyrics" tag below, there's at least four pages of poems, so click on "older posts."

I think that's it.

“Flying Columns” based on “Pride of a Nation” by Skrewdriver. Original lyrics are here.

1. This is about the IRA’s 1950s Border Campaign. For more on that see this (this page has a lot of information that I would normally put in the notes).
2. I’ve read that another mistake they made was ignoring Belfast - that meant they were not much of a threat to the State (I’ve also read of two explanations for not carrying out operations there, but one doesn’t really make sense). And beyond what the article says, they also failed to mobilize popular support and mass struggle alongside the armed campaign.
3. The Provisionals were the republican movement known in recent decades simply as Sinn Fein and the IRA; they came into existence in late 1969/early1970.
4. 55% of this version is me, 45% is the original.
5. I give this poem four stars out of five.
6. I don’t know how close i am to being accurate about what Volunteers during this campaign were wearing.
7. Skrewdriver supported the British and Unionist causes.

They won support in the North before the battle began
The day is getting closer, and they’re perfecting their plan
As they march towards the battlefield, the enemy is near
The first fight is coming, and their committment is sincere

(chorus)
Pride of a nation, freedom's salvation
Pride of a nation, they fought for our liberation

A uniform of green, with the tri-color and black mask
Their honor was their dedication, to complete their Northern task
They fought against such massive odds, earning glory in the fields
And in ‘57 many in the South responded to the republican appeal

Chorus

When the offensive stalled, the campaign was going nowhere
They brought it to an end and admitted they were in error
The fire would be rekindled, the flames would fill the skies
Like a phoenix from the ashes, the Provisionals would arise

******

“Freedom Fighters” based on “We Fight for Freedom” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. The Provisionals is an earlier term for what we now call simply Sinn Fein and the IRA.
2. The tri-color is the Irish flag.
3. Volunteers are members of republican paramilitaries. The 3 rd line refers to a volley of shots fired at a funeral for a Volunteer.
4. The Starry Plough is the flag of socialist republicanism.
5. 46% of this version is me, 54% is the original.
6. I give this poem three stars out of five.
7. This is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.

Out of the ashes, the Provisionals arose
They charge at the enemy, their courage overflows
Our tri-colors are flying, our rifles aimed at the sky
As we say farewell to a Volunteer who has died

(chorus)
We're fighting for freedom, our destiny hangs by a thread
We're fighting for freedom, the flag of our nation at our head
We're fighting for freedom, the land of our ancestors must be united
We're fighting for freedom, British imperialism will be smited

Our enemies ranks are a mixture of imperialists, and unionists
We’re radical republicans, ready to resist, with the raised fist
We fight for our people, we fight for a future of light
For the dark surrounds us, so we must win this fight

Heed the sounds of battle, the screams of the wounded are loud
The warriors stand and they fly the Starry Plough
We know that victory will soon be ours, as we gaze at the sight
The flags of our nation are raised in victorious flight

*******

“Irish Republican Army” based on “European Skinhead Army” by No Remorse, original lyrics are here.

1. This is set in 1971 when barricades were put up around some Nationalist areas to keep the security forces out.
2. Probably about half of nationalists supported armed struggle at that point, probably about half of those people were supporting the Provisional IRA (probably a large minority sort of supported the IRA- After what happened in Aug '69 they probably liked having an armed IRA around if needed).
4. Many, probably a large majority, of Unionists workers are, (at least) in the mid- and long terms, sabotaging themselves with their sectarianism. It weakens the labor movement and the left and is more or less responsible for the fact that workers in the North are poorer than workers in Britain. They benefit from sectarian discrimination in pay and employment but don’t see the large picture where uniting Ireland and thus undermining sectarianism will likely transform Ireland into a democratic socialist state with equality between Catholics and Protestants. (for why that is likely, see the bottom half of this . You might also read this, which is about breaking down sectarian divisions)
5. In Aug. of 1969 there was one pogrom and an attempted pogrom against the Catholic community. There’s more on that here and here.
6. The Starry Plough is the flag of republican socialism.
7. Gerald McCauley was a member of the IRA’s youth wing. Without being armed he was part of Nationalist resistance during the West Belfast Aug. 1969 anti-Catholic pogrom. He was killed and the area he was defending, Bombay St., was burned out.
8. Valhalla is part of Norse mythology, it's a place where warriors go after they die, although there seems to be some debate about exactly who gets in- only people who die in combat? Anyway, the fascists love it and have sort of taken over the concept, but a friend (Pat C., a member of Anti-Fascist Action) told me that he likes the idea of the left re-claiming it and specifically said that if such a place exists, Che and others like him are probably there. (The way I see it, this is pretty flexible, don't take it too seriously, and one way to think about it is that if you believe in Heaven and would rather these people went there instead of Valhalla, maybe they can do both, spend some time in Valhalla and some time in Heaven; but my friend and I do like the idea of reclaiming it from the fash).
9. RA is Republican Army, and is pronounced “raw.”
10. 77% of this version is me, 23% is the original.
11. I give this poem four stars out of five.

Man the barricades, resistance has exploded
We're armed and ready, locked and loaded
We've got the people’s support, we've got the guns,
We never lose, we’ll fight til we’ve won

Chorus:
Irish Republican Army,
We stand together in a people’s war
Irish Republican Army,
We fight for freedom as our fathers did before

This is our land, we want it united
working-class unionists are so short-sighted
Another pogrom, we won’t allow
We raise our fists and fly the starry plough

For McAuley and for Bombay Street
We will fight until our victory’s complete
With our comrades in battle or in Valhalla
We fight for Ireland, because we are the RA

******

“Withdrawal” based on “Repatriation” by Final War, original lyrics are here.

1. This is set in the early 1970s. At some point, early in that period, I’m not sure exactly when, there were huge numbers of British troops coming into the North, and they started building more military installations, as the situation worsened.. The BA is the British Army.
2. As far as it being imperialist, I go into that quite a bit here, in the paragraph which is about 40% the way down from the top, and which starts with- “For a few reasons I'm.”
3. There had been a few armed attempts at liberating the North since the formation of the state, attempts that went nowhere. Many senior members of the IRA in the 1970s we’re committed to a long war and fighting til victory. UPDATE 9/25/11 I have a theory (probably a very accurate one) of why they DID stop significantly short of victory- I explain that here.
4. The deployment of British troops on the streets of N. Ireland in August 1969 was seen in different ways. To a large degree their immediate effect was to save Catholic communites from being attacked beyond what they had already experienced (see this and this). But they also rescued the State from falling apart. And they made it difficult for the IRA to get support from Nationalists for an armed campaign against the British Army and government. In some cases the BA was accused of pointing their weapons at the Catholics, and some IRA members were arrested, after their communities had experienced what were pogroms (or attempted pogrom, in Derry).
5. Plantation is a word for a new colony (so it’s not a perfect fit with that line, but close enough).
6. I believe that one reason the British wanted to retain N. Ireland is that the labor movement and the left were weaker there than in other areas of the UK, because of sectarianism.
7. I’m not sure if “peace-keeping” is the right way to describe the initial presence of the British troops, but I think it’s fairly accurate (I know that the rest of the conflict London would often talk about the BA as if they were peace-keepers, but this is different- the first several months or so they were fairly close to being peace-keepers).
**8. 72% of this version is me, 28% is the original (that includes the chnages I made in the fourth verse (As far as i can see, there is not a chorus).
9. I give this poem four stars out of five.
10. I believe that there should be a period of gradual change; so, the 2nd line of the 2nd verse shouldn’t be taken literally.
11. This version, although it seems like it needs more, has one anti-right line, which is to some degree in conflict with the politics behind the original. I talk about why that’s important here.
UPDATE 9/3/11 I earlier got confused and thought that the original was by a Dutch or Belgian band; it's actually an American band. I need to add something more to "twist" the original lyrics; I'll add something soon.
UPDATE 9/25/11 I have just created an anti-racist line to "twist" the lyrics enough that I feel comfortable with this poem. The last word of the 3rd line of what is the 4th verse ("Tories") and the entire line below it are new.
The problems with the Orange Order are described here. Bigotry weakens the working-class, the labor movement, and the left.

As instability and resistance spreads, the BA settles in
their transports fly into Belfast again and again
the British Army are on an imperialist crusade
we’re going to put an end to it, ‘cause we’re the IRA

We've been doing this for many decades
This time we won’t stop til their transports fly away
it's time to take action, time to make a stand
send ‘em back to their own island

British withdrawal must start today
British withdrawal it is the only way
British withdrawal that is our demand
British withdrawal take them right out of our land!

What do you think brought them here from their foreign nation?
The need to stabilize and secure their imperial plantation
the Tories want a pool of cheap labor for the capitalists
Like the KKK and racism, the Orange Order gives them an assist

A brief peace-keeping operation is all they thought it would be
But now we’ve started a popular insurgency
we've had enough British rule, can’t take it anymore
Let’s push them out and Ireland will be united once more

Release Marian Price

2011-05-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I read an article on the web-site of the BBC. As far as follwing Irish current events, the last few years I've only read an average of about 25 articles a week; recently it's been about four BBC articles a day. But one article I read caught my attention. I can't find that article, but found an even better one, from Sinn Fein's publication An Phoblacht. The article is here and below is the text (it's a short article).

Sending her back to jail is very messed up. She got in trouble because at a republican event, she stood next to a masked Volunteer and held a paper that he read from. Practically no one gets in legal trouble for that! It's been accepted as a normal part of many republican events. I'm a bit disappointed that SF have not said that her arrest was ridiculous, but maybe they will soon.

Here's the article:

Sinn Féin calls for release of Marian Price

THE JAILING of Marian Price after British Secretary of State Owen Paterson revoked her licence for release was wrong and she should be freed, Sinn Féin deputy chair of the Justice Committee Raymond McCartney MLA has said.

Price is a vocal opponent of Sinn Féin and the Peace Process but she is still entitled to due process, Sinn Féin insists.

She was on licence from a life sentence for her part in the IRA bombing of London’s Old Bailey in 1973.

The Secretary of State revoked Price’s licence after the 57-year-old was released on bail after appearing in court on charges relating to an Easter Rising commemoration in Derry City.

Her detention has been described as ‘de facto internment’.

Calling for her release, Sinn Féin’s Raymond McCartney said:

Sinn Féin are on record that Marian Price is entitled to due process and the revoking of her licence is completely unacceptable.

The fact that Marian Price is now being held in Maghaberry Prison for men is also totally unacceptable.

Marian Price is now being held in different circumstances from other female prisoners and this is not conducive to the implementation of a proper justice service.

Sinn Féin are reiterating our demand that Marian Price is entitled to full legal process and should be released immediately on the bail set by the Derry court.

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews F

2011-05-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

Anti-Fascist Republicanism: Four New Poems

2011-05-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here are four more new poems. The first three are based on lyrics I find politically offensive- I explain some more about that here.

The last one is probably my best and probably my last poem about anti-racist skinheads. There are some notes about those poems here that you might want to read.

For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

“In the Spirit of Connie Green” based on “European Unity” by Brutal Attack, original lyrics are here.

1. Connie Green was a republican Volunteer killed on active service in 1955. During World War II he was a British commando (he didn’t fight in Spain). It’s more or less about those republicans who fought in Spain (most of the Irish people who fought fascism in Spain's Civil War were republicans) and/or supported the Allies.
2. At first I had so much trouble trying to alter the original lyrics. Then I got the idea of making it about Ireland and World War II.
3. It’s almost the soundtrack for one of my posts.
4. During WWII internment without charge or trial was used by the Fianna Fail government in Dublin against republicans. The government was very conservative, economically and socially. Republicans had done a lot to get FF into power when it seemed like a left-leaning republican party.
5. The South leaned a bit towards the Allies but were basically neutral.
6. The British Prime Minister, Churchill, tried to get the South to join the Allies, and at one point suggested that in return he would let Ireland be united. There’s some reason to believe he didn’t mean it. I believe that if Ireland HAD joined the Allies, the cause of Irish unity would have had a lot of support internationally after the war, and that might have resulted in Ireland being united even if London tried to renege on the deal.
7. Dev was the informal name for the Irish Prime Minister at the time.
8. “No Pasaran’ is a spanish anti-fascist slogan.
9. 76% of this version is me, 24% is the original.
10. I give this poem four out of five stars.
11. UPDATE 7/9/11 I just realized that some of this poem suggests that all anti-fascists want socialism. Obviously that's not true and I might change those lines.

You know the South’s been put in the hands of fools,
Mis-using their power, internment their No1 tool.
We're partly to blame for helping them get power
And now they’re neutral, in democracy’s darkest hour

Chorus 1:
Anti-fascist unity,
we want socialism and democracy
Unity of the Irish nation
Europe free from Nazi occupations

Our fathers fought for the South’s freedom you see,
We’re prepared to fight and die, for Irish Unity
We fought for democracy in Spain
But dev passed up a chance for us to attain...

Chorus 2:
Irish Unity
We want socialism and democracy
“No Pasaran,” that is our stance
In Berlin, Belfast, Spain, or France

Chorus 1
Solo
Chorus 2

So listen dev, listen very carefully,
You should take London’s offer and help defeat the Nazis
In return our island will be united
If the Allies stick together, Nazi Germany will be smited

It wont be easy, it'll be a long hard undertaking,
The Nazi german war machine, we’ll be breaking
And we'll win- we have the might, and we know we’re right
So on the eve of Irish unity let us join this important fight

****
“Proclamation of the Republic” based on “New Nation” by Skrewdriver, original lyrics are here.

1. Lately I’ve been putting a lot of time, more so than usual, into trying to perfect these poems I do. This one, the last verse is not very impressive to me, but I have spent a lot of time on that and I don’t think I can make it any better.
2. The first verse is about the immediate aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising. A description of the Rising can be found here. Almost immediately, support for republicans exploded, and in late 1918 Sinn Fein won the vast majority of Irish seats in a general election.
3. I believe that during the period 1916 to about 1922 that acting like there was a 32-county Republic made sense. I believe that changed gradually after the new borders of the South and the North were settled. The Northern statelet had no legitimacy. But I believe that with each election in the South, the Dublin state became more and more legitimate.
4. The reference to a war sort of makes sense with hind-sight- it’s kind of fairly accurate to say that the Easter Rising was the beginning of the War of Independence (“war” was the best option).
5. The 2nd verse is about the War of Independence (or the vast bulk of it, considering what I said in the preceeding note). When the 1916 Easter Rising took place, and until the leaders were executed, there wasn’t much support for the republican militants.
6. The Union Jack is the British flag.
7. Why do I think truth and reconciliation will happen as the British leave? As far as truth is concerned, I think there’s a good chance that will happen, partly because of the reconciliation part of this. Whatever sectarianism is experienced by the Protestant community will be a tiny fraction of what Catholics under British rule in Ireland have experienced for centuries. I offer some evidence for this here. As the Protestant community gradually learns that it has nothing to fear from living in a united, independent Ireland, they’ll probably be more receptive to a description of what Catholics went through. There are some more of my thoughts on sectarian divisions here.
8. The 3rd line of the last verse is about more southerners and more northern nationalists embracing republicanism, which goes beyond a general desire for a United Ireland (which close to all of those people support).
9. 53% of this version is me, 47% is the original.
10. I give this poem three stars out of five.
11. Skrewdriver supported the British and Unionist causes.

The Tories are thrilled, as our leaders are being killed
The Brits are celebrating, they think they've won the war
They can stop their jeering, 'cos soon we'll be cheering
They think they have beaten us, but we have esprit de corps

(chorus)
Irish Republic free and true, I pledge my life to you
Now the situation is so tense
Irish Republic free and true, I pledge my life to you
If you fall, we'll fall in your defense

Our attacks are stunning, now the Brits are running
And people who weren’t on our side, now support the IRA
State money is always available, to pay those with info that’s salable
They may buy some traitors, but we will have our day

Chorus

They think they have won, but one day our time will come
They'll regret their ignorance, their bigotry, and partition
When our people come around, the Union Jacks will be torn down
As British rule fades truth and reconciliation will begin

*******

“Irish Republican Socialist” based on “White National Socialist” by No Remorse original lyrics can be found here.

1. James Connolly was the greatest socialist/republican in Irish history.
2. A “stoop” is a member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. They are the main rival to Sinn Fein (among the nationalist community). I describe why they’re so bad here.
3. The RUC was, between the statelet’s creation and late 2001, the police for N. Ireland.
4. There are 32 counties in Ireland.
5. I give this poem 4 stars out of five.
6. 83% of this version is me, 17% is the original.
7. This poem is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.

I live my life inspired by James Connolly
I pride my self on working-class solidarity
without these things I’d be nothing but a “Stoop”
But I support attacking, the RUC and the Britsh troops

Chorus
Irish Republican Socialst
proud to be and your can be- a
Irish Republican Socialst
Against capital and the RUC

x2

We need to seperate the North from the UK
And scare the bosses with our numbers on the first of May
By whatever means necessary, including the gun
Ireland, north and south should be united as one

chorus

we’re fighting for a 32-county socialist state
won’t stand for any injustice, inequality or any hate
Let’s drive out the British Army and unite our Irish land
We’ll vote out all the Tories and the unions will expand

Chorus

*******

"Frank Ryan Brigade" based on "Belfast Brigade," author unknown, multiple versions, mine is a combination of two I found on the Internet (plus 3 tiny changes I made), and thus there's no URL, the original is below the altered one.

1. The Hammerskins, or the Hammerskin Nation, most of the last 20 years have been America's and the world's leading Nazi skinhead organization.
2. Frank Ryan was an Irish republican leader of the International brigades on the anti-fascist side of the Spanish Civil War. (THERE IS NO SUCH GROUP, I MADE UP THE NAME “FRANK RYAN BRIGADE” FOR A FICTIONAL SHARP CREW)
3. SHARP is SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice. Since the song implies left-wing politics, I should say that I am going to write the SHARP poems as a leftist, even though probably some small majority of anti-racist skinheads are not leftists.
4. Docs refers to Doc Martens, boots that something like 99% of skinheads wear.
5. "No Pasaran" means "They shall not pass" and is an anti-fascist slogan originating with the Spanish Civil War.
6. The Hammerskins started in Dallas, TX.
7. Although in America Nazi skinheads probably have an average of 2 guns each (that's based on anecdotal evidence) and often use them, I get the impression it's much less common for anti-racist skinheads to have or use guns. In any case, it was the best substitute and almost definitely makes sense to some degree.
8. CEO might be a stretch as it implies a large corporation, but there are wealthy people who support white supremacist organizations, and companies outside the Fortune 500 have CEOs, and it's possible a small % of the top people at Fortune 500 corporations give money to White Supremacist organizations. (it pretty much makes sense and rhymed)
9. Elements of the GOP, including Saul Anuzis (see this) support White Supremacist or at least sort of White Supremacist organizations. (it pretty much makes sense)
10. Skinheads indicate their politics or lack thereof with the color of their laces. White always/almost always indicates racism, red in America is often worn by racists, although it is also worn by leftists. Except for a few reports of white being worn by anti-racists, they wear colored laces (I'm pretty sure black is worn almost only by non-political skinheads and by those in the process of joing a racist organization (and occassionally, anti-racists)). So, it makes sense and rhymes.
11. 48% of this version is me, 52% of it is the original.
12. I give this version five out of five stars.

The Hammerskins went out to beat the people down
They thought that SHARP was dead in our cities and our towns
But they got a rude awakening, when with fists and with Docs
They met the anti-racists who will fight them block by block

Glory, glory to the working-class
Glory, Glory to those who struggle en masse
Glory to the memory
Of those who fought and died
"No Pasaran" is the war cry, of the Frank Ryan Brigade

Hammerskins came from Dallas, equipped with fascist hate
Men by the hundred, spreading state to state
But when they met the SHARPs they were seriously delayed
By true skinheads of the anti-fascist Frank Ryan Brigade

Chorus

We have no guns or backing from the GOP or right-wing CEOs
We're ready to defend ourselves no matter where we go
We're fighting for our democracy and to hell with your fascist state
"No Pasaran" is the war cry of those opposed to hate

Chorus

So come all you gallant young people, and get your colored laces
We’ll strike a blow for freedom, equality, unity of all the races
You know our movement's history and the sacrifice it made
Come join the SHARPs of the Frank Ryan Brigade

Chorus

original lyrics:

Craigavon sent the Specials out to shoot the people down
He thought the IRA were dead in dear old Belfast town
But he got a rude awakening, when with rifle and grenade
He met the first battalion of the Belfast Brigade

Glory, glory to old Ireland
Glory, Glory to this island
Glory to the memory
Of those who fought and died
"No Surrender" is the war cry of the Belfast Brigade

Specials came from Holywood, equipped with English guns
Men by the thousand, ammunition by the ton
But when they got to Seaford St. they were seriously delayed
By the fighting 1st battalion of the Belfast Brigade

Chorus

We have no armored cars or tenders for to show
We're ready to defend ourselves no matter where we go
We're out for our Republic and to hell with your Orange state
"No Surrender" is the war cry of the Belfast Brigade

Chorus

So come all you gallant Irish people and join the IRA
To strike a blow for freedom, when there comes our certain day
You know our country's history and the sacrifice it made
Come join the 1st battalion of the Belfast Brigade

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews E

2011-04-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

Anti-Sectarian

2011-04-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

Immediately below is a poem I’ve “written.” For more information on my poetry, see this. It’s about anti-sectarianism in the North of Ireland, against both the anti-Catholic kind of bigotry and the anti-Protestant kind of bigotry. Below IT are some notes on that subject.

For the rest of the poems click on the "lyrics" label at the bottom (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

“Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter” based on “Tearing Down the Red Flags” (or something like that) by Razor’s Edge. Original lyrics are here.

1. At first I thought of doing a small alteration of this- making it about the Union Jack and unionism and/or British imperialism. But then I decided to go a bit further and in a slightly different direction, and make it about sectarianism in the North.
2. The Union Jack is the British flag.
3. There are six counties in N. Ireland and Orange is the color of anti-Catholic bigotry in the Irish-British context.
4. Fermanagh is in the south-west of the North, Belfast is in the east and sort of north.
5. For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this.
6. The BA is the British Army.
7. This is set somewhere around 2000. From what I remember, it was around then that Sinn Fein (I'm not sure if that means this is about SF, and is that appropriate???) stepped up their effort to reach Protestant Unionists, and the BA were usually still involved with forcing Orange marches through Catholic areas. (SF is very anti-sectarian with both kinds of sectarianism)
8. In two other poems I had hit a wall in terms of coming up with a line that would make sense and rhyme, and I ended up referring to the “Northern KKK” or “Northern Ku Klux Klan.” As I mentioned in another post, I don’t think the Orange Order is 100% as bad as the KKK, but even today they’re close and in the recent past, they were definitely close.
9. The red, white and black are the colors of the Nazi flag. Once again, what the Union Jack stands for in the Irish-British relationship isn’t as bad as what the Nazi flag stands for, but there are many points in Irish history when it was close.
10. As far as republican sectarianism towards Protestants, see most of this post.
11. As far as “republican revolution” this is the second poem which requires me to explain why I believe that Sinn Fein (and most of the rest of the republican family) can be called revolutionaries. I’ll do that soon, for now just take my word for it : ).
12. I give this poem five stars out of five.
13. 57% of this version is me, 43% is the original.
14. As far as the second line of the first verse, I believe that the Orange nature of the statelet was slowly, more or less decreasing, although it has certainly been a slow process and there is still a lot of room for improvement. As far as the end of the statelet itself, even today I’m not sure if we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
15. The last line is about tearing down the structures of Orangeism, unionism and British imperialism (reforming the police, more movement towards a United Ireland, a ban on Orange marches through Catholic areas without the consent of the residents, starting an international and independent process of looking at the past that will make it clear to everyone what the nationalist and Catholic communities went through during the Troubles, and the decades before that, etc.).
16. UPDATE 5/4/11 I just realized there is a small conflict between the 3rd line of 2nd verse and the 3rd line of the last verse. I might change that soon.

You fly your Union Jacks and your symbols full of hate
Don't you see the end of your six-county Orange state?
We're tearing down sectarian divisions from Fermanagh to Belfast
and in their place we create solidarity of the working-class

Chorus:
We're tearing down sectarianism - we'll banish the North’s shame!
We're tearing down sectarianism - we’ll all oppose the British claim
We're tearing down sectarianism - we're never giving in!
We're tearing down sectarianism - and we're gonna fucking win!

Orangemen still marching on our streets, supported by the BA
Don't they fucking realise, we won’t surrender to the Northern KKK
They're just a bunch of wankers, with nothing new to say.
Well here's some headlines for ya- “republican revolution’s on its way.”

Chorus

You display your orange bunting and your union jacks
In the North it’s almost as bad as flying the red, white and black
We're tearing down sectarian divisions and we'll talk with you as well.
So you can join us in tearing down this Orange capitalist hell

Chorus

******

If you look at figures for unemployment and income, and sectarian murders, homes attacked, and Orange marches through Catholic areas, in recent decades (and certainly before that) it’s clear that Catholics have been targets of the overwhelmingly vast bulk of sectarianism in the North.

And here are some things I want to mention about sectarianism going the other way, and about sectarian DIVISIONS. Some of the stuff below I wrote partly as a pre-emptive response to people who might say that as a republican I can't be against anti-Protestant bigotry. (my attitude about sectarianism is completely compatible with republicanism, or at least the republicanism of the overwhelmingly vast majority of republicans- SF is VERY good at trying to break-down divisions and have dialogue with Protestant unionists)

1) The Speedwell Trust is a great organization in the North. They bring Catholic and Protestant kids together through environmental education and community relations programs. It’s doing very important work. In late 2002 I read an article in the Irish News about how they needed funding from the government immediately or they might have to close down. At the time the group I organized on the CU-Boulder campus, Students for Justice in N. Ireland, was active, and we tried to help Speedwell by contacting the N. Ireland Office and getting others (largely via environmentalist groups on campus) to do the same.

The Speedwell Trust’s web-site is here.

2) In 2002 I made two trips to Ireland. The second one was during the marching season (when anti-Catholic organizations have marches , including some in Catholic areas with the police and/or Army forcing the march through (For info about Orangemen marching through Catholic areas and why that’s wrong, see this)). Often the ones through Catholic areas result in riots. I was at two such protests and (at both) at one point a small number of the kids rioting threw some rocks over the Peace Line fence into a Protestant area. Several people, (including myself, the second time this happened), yelled at them to stop. Although I was fine with them throwing stuff at the police and Army, throwing rocks into Protestant areas is very unhelpful and just increases tension and hate and I'm pretty sure is almost never a good idea (the one possible exception in recent years I can think of is when an isolated nationalist enclave in east Belfast was under siege for weeks in 2002).

About a week before that, I went to Ardoyne in north Belfast. I had been there 1-2 days earlier and the local nationalist kids surrounded me with questions- I was pretty popular. So the next time I was there a couple of boys, probably 10-12 years old, talked with me when I was waiting for a bus back to the city center. The street we were on was one of the main roads in north Belfast and was one of the boundaries for the nationalist Ardoyne area. At one point a taxi drives by and one of the boys says he wished he had a rock to throw at it. It was a taxi from a business with links to a loyalist paramilitary. I could understand wanting to throw a rock at such a taxi, but realized that there would very likely be passengers who did not deserve to be attacked like that. I explained that to the boys and they sort of understood.

3) The Pat Finucane Centre for Human Rights and Social Change is a very important organization in N. Ireland. For some number of years they organized events around the annual commemoration of Bloody Sunday. Another thing they do is facilitate dialogue between the two communities (I’m sure overwhelmingly at the working-class level) in different ways. They’re generally very progressive. Although it ended up being only slightly successful, I worked with some others to organize a benefit show for the PFC, I think we got them about $50 (the two groups that organized it together were Students for Justice in N. Ireland (my group) and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center).

Their web-site is here.

4) There is, of course the issue of integrated education. For most of my thoughts on that, see this review of Star Trek episodes, when I discuss the episode “In the Hands of the Prophets.”

5) About two and a half years ago I found a fan-made music video on YouTube for the song “There Were Roses (Cara Dillon version)” There’s two crucial facts about the lyrics that I couldn’t find, and in general I don’t agree with all of it. But there’s one thing it’s about that I like- celebrating friendships that cross the sectarian divide (there are some other elements I like, such as the description of Catholic fear about loyalist retaliation).

The missing facts are, who killed the Protestant, and why (I found something saying that it’s based on a true story but I couldn’t find their names in a data-base of all the people killed during the conflict). Also I’m not crazy about the last verse. But the anti-sectarianism of most of the lyrics is great. The YouTube music video is here.

6) There's some info about Irish Republicans and sectarianism towards Protestant about 2/3 down this post.

6) Lastly, in case someone thinks there is no anti-Protestant bigotry in the North, I have absolutely no doubt- you could almost say I experienced it myself. On the night July 11th/12th 2002 I was walking in a republican part of west Belfast. Each year that night sees some large degree of tension and fear in nationalist areas that there will be loyalist attacks. That doesn’t justify what happened, but I think it might partly explain it. So, what happened was that I passed a bar as two guys came out of it and they asked me if I was Catholic. I said yes. But I can only imagine what would have happened if I were a N. Ireland Protestant and had admitted it.

Policing in N. Ireland and Catholic Recruits

2011-04-24T18:22:00.000-07:00

There's one recent event about N. Ireland that I want to briefly mention.

That is, the status of reforming the police. It’s been awhile since I took a close look at things like what has happened with Special Branch, how is the Justice Ministry is working, etc. I get the impression those things are going in the right direction. As far as I can tell, the policing boards were a good idea. On the other hand I have read credible reports and comments indicating that there is still a problem with how nationalists, Catholics, and republicans are treated by the police.

To one degree or another part of reforming the police was the effort to increase the representation of Catholics in the force. For 10 years starting in 2001 there was a policy where for each Protestant hired, a Catholic would have to be hired. I like to think that the growing number of Catholics (from a nationalist background) had some effect on the behavior of unionist sectarians still in the force, and it might have had some other positive effects (beyond the average experience Catholics have with the police improving directly as a result of being contacted by Catholic officers).

So, I think it’s fairly important, and now that it is being ended, that might cause some problems for the Peace Process.

At this point the percentage of the force that is Catholic is about 30%. The percentage of the population that is from a Catholic background is about 44% (40% identify as Catholic, 4% were probably raised Catholic and probably live in Catholic neighborhoods and probably are nationalists but are probably atheists (those figures are from the 2001 British census)). Now, the gap is less than it was 10 years ago. Also, there have been many republican attacks, two of them successful, aimed killing police in the North. It has been said that this might discourage Catholics from joining the force. So, we might see a decrease in the percentage of the force that’s Catholic.

I often like to talk about the activism I’ve done in the past. I also like reading things I wrote back then. Below is a letter I wrote that was published in the Irish News, the main paper read by the nationalist community in N. Ireland. It was written and published somewhere around September 2002.

Tom

In a recent letter Patrick Clarke of the SDLP brings up something in relation to policing that I have wanted to comment on for a while. He says that if the SDLP hadn't signed up to the policing reforms then the RUC would remain as it was. I seriously doubt that would have been the case. If the SDLP had joined SF in demanding Patten (ideally minus the plastic bullets) as the absolute minimum acceptable to the nationalist community and anyone concerned about human rights, I think Blair would have had to go along with that. As much as I dis-like Blair, I doubt he would say no to both SF and the SDLP on an issue like this.

Also, I think the SDLP are somewhat mistaken when they talk about nationalists needing to take responsibility for their part in building a new police service. Sure, nationalists and their political representatives do have responsibilities at various stages of developing a new police service, and at a certain stage they should give it their support. But the SDLP vastly over-estimate the responsibility of nationalists and republicans in this project. The British government is the one with the power here, the one responsible for allowing, financing, and since 1972, running, the softcore version of the Nazi SS that was the RUC. They have the power to change the police to a large degree. I believe it is their responsibility to, through legislation and other moves, reform the police as far as possible before they expect nationalists and republicans to give their support by joining the police and the Policing Board. Ideally, I believe the government should, based on some criteria (such as Orange Order membership, suspected collusion, etc.) sack those officers who are the biggest part of the problem and replace them with Gardai, officers from Britain, or from other EU nations. This, along with other reforms such as those in the Patten Report, would create STRUCTURAL changes to the police sufficient so that nationalists and republicans could then participate in further developing the police service without worrying that they are simplying giving legitimacy to an un-reconstructed RUC.

Another aspect of the policing reforms has concerned me. The 50/50 recruitment effort doesn't greatly impress me. It's widely believed that the Catholic and Protestant sections of the population are almost equal, with both at about 47 percent. Without any sacking of unreconstructed sectarians and with a planned down-sizing of the force, it is unlikely that many recruits will be brought in. And if Catholics are to be recruited at roughly the same rate as they are in the general population, how long will it take to change the composition of the police from about 90% Protestant and 10% Catholic to something reflecting the general population? Decades is my guess, and I understand this recruitment policy is supposed to end after 10 years. If the police reforms are to work, this process needs to be speeded up to something like 75/25 Catholic/Protestant recruitment.

One last thing I think needs to be done as a matter of urgency is for the British government to put it's foot down and demand that the police crack down on loyalist paramilitaries. The police, as many other writers have pointed out, know who they are- they have much better intelligence on loyalists than on republicans because the former are less likely to kill informers, the history of collusion, and the fact that they largely come from the same estates and families. I'm not advocating they treat loyalists like they did republicans with internment and Diplock courts, but they are quite capable of arresting, jailing, prosecuting and convicting those who are involved in loyalist violence. And with the probability of a loyalist feud that will terrorize ordinary loyalists and probably lead to increased attacks on Catholics, it is even more urgent that this be done.

I have to admit, the SDLP do deserve credit for getting Hugh Orde into the Chief Constable's job, and I imagine he is pretty inclined to go after loyalists- the arrest of Andre Shoukri might be a sign of that. But that arrest barely qualifies as a good start- much more is needed. If Mr. Orde's subordinates drag their feet on this or continue turning a blind eye to loyalist violence, he needs to sack them without hesitation. Blair and Reid need to give him whatever support is needed in this effort.

As the Sinn Fein posters say about policing, nationalists and indeed all people in the North, deserve better. And the SDLP needs to join them in demanding this.

Tom Shelley
Boulder, Colorado USA

Welcome To Ireland: More Republican Poems

2011-04-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

I stopped doing these about 1.5 years ago, but recently have been listening to some new music I downloaded and wanted to alter them. I really enjoy doing that. This batch is all what I used to call "Those Lyrics," I explain that and some other stuff about the poems here. These are the first two, I've got about 5 others I'll post soon. but I want to post some of them now.

The rest of the songs/poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label (there are at least four pages worth of posts, so click on the "older posts" at the bottom of the first page).

“Ireland II” based on “Deutschland” by No Remorse, original lyrics are here.

1. The troubles started in the late 1960s, depending on who you ask. Forty years is pretty close.
2. Volunteers are members of republican paramilitaries.
3. N. Ireland or The North, can also be referred to as the North-East of Ireland (geographically it’s fairly accurate).
4. I have a shirt that I used to wear about twice a month that says “FROM OUT OF THE ASHES AROSE THE PROVISIONALS.” The Provisionals were a large splinter from the IRA and SinnFein which shortly became the dominant part of the republican family and are now known simply as the IRA and Sinn Fein. The shirt refers to the mythical Phoenix. I believe the ashes refer to both the Phoenix and also the burned out homes in nationalist areas after the Aug. 1969 pogrom, an event which contributed to a large number of people leaving the main republican movement and starting or joining the Provisionals.
5. In fairness, as far as the laws governing N. Ireland go, there was some improvement around 1970, but the high levels of police and Army brutality and murder of Catholics went through the roof, among other problems- such as the widespread and largely sectarian use of internment without charge or trial.
6. I give this poem four stars out of five.
7. 82% of this version is me, 18% is the original.
8. I skipped the Chorus.
9. No Remorse was British and supported the British and Unionist causes in N. Ireland.
10. This is not meant as an endorsement of armed struggle since 1997.
11. The BA is the British Army.

They fought a war, started 40 years in the past
Our respect for the Volunteers, it will always last

like the phoenix, in 1970 they rose from the ashes.
They fought the BA in thousands of clashes

They fought, an insurgent war in the north-east.
They fought and died against the British beast.

The nationalist community, wanted justice and equality
But, London started rounding up internees

*****

“Falite” based on “Welcome” by Bound for Glory, original lyrics are here.

1. “Falite” is Irish for welcome.
2. This is set in the early 1970s- about 2 years before Bloody Sunday, and then a bit after Bloody Sunday.
3. “those who are loyal” refers to loyalists/unionists- to one large degree or another, most/all of them are more or less anti-Catholics bigots (it kind of depends on exactly how you define “unionist/loyalist” and “sectarian”).
4. There were anti-Catholic pogroms in Belfast and and attempted pogrom in Derry in Aug. 1969, see this and this.
5. Belfast is the capital of N. Ireland.
6. Squaddie is a term for British soldiers.
7. The RUC were the police in N. Ireland between the statelet’s formation in the early 1920s and late 2001 when they were re-named the PSNI with some changes.
8. In the early 1970s there were relatively and completely non-violent marches; there was a lot of activity by republican paramilitaries, and there was a lot of rioting.
9. Bloody Sunday is when 13-14 civil rights marchers were killed by the British Army in Jan. 1972. For more on that see this and this and this.
10. The Crown refers to the Crown Prosecution Service, and they HAVE charged some members of the security forces, but that was VERY uncommon.
11. Bound for Glory is American, which is why I included something explicitly anti-fascist (see this for why that’s important (actually two things make me think it’s possible to say that BfG is anti-Irish Republican).
12. There are 32 counties in Ireland.
13. I give this poem 5 stars out of five.
**14. 67% of this version is me, 33% is the original.

The North in turmoil,
Hatred from those who are loyal
The British Army has been introduced
soon all hell is gonna break loose,
Rioting - rocks and petrol bombs
We’ll stop the next pogrom
No financial compensation can cover the cost
Of our lack of freedom or loved ones lost

Ref: WELCOME......to the city of Belfast
WELCOME...... we’re gonna kick your ass
WELCOME...... from the IRA
WELCOME......to a squaddie mass grave

Living in poverty -
And under the jackboot of the RUC
you can march and you can fight
There are buses you can set alight
Tory/Unionist desires
fuel nationalist fires
Bloody Sunday, our anger overflows
the whole damn country is about to blow

Ref:

Unleashed, the Belfast Brigade
With rifles, bombs, and grenades
On the streets we attack the police -
if there's no justice you'll get no peace
Opponents of fascism and hate.
Fighting for a 32-County state,
Soldiers violating our human rights
yet the Crown never indicts

Ref:

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews D

2011-04-14T10:50:00.001-07:00

RIP Manning Marable

2011-04-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

Manning Marable, one of the top scholars in African-American Studies, passed away April 1st.

Dr. Marable was one of the major influences on me as I developed my understanding of socialism. I can't say I read all his books, but I read three of them (Race, Reform and Rebellion (1991); Black Leadership (1998); one more, published sometime in the early 1990s?? I can't remember the name) and a lengthy pamphlet. I think I started at the University of Colorado at Boulder months or at most a year after he stopped teaching there, which was a bummer.

At one point, I had a sort of stupid idea, of putting together a collection of political essays, and I wrote to Dr. Marable asking him to contribute. Unsurprisingly, he declined (I didn't have any kind of reputation or a B.A., I just came out of nowhere) but he read one of the essays I had sent him and wrote me back saying he liked it. (it was very cool of him to write me back). The paper he commented on had a fair amount of stuff about Ireland in it, and I would be very surprised if he hadn't been mildly interested in the North and supportive of republicanism.

I briefly met him about 13 years ago when he spoke at CU-Colorado Springs. I thanked him for the response he sent me. I think that was it, I didn't want to take anymore of his time.

Anyway, politically he had a major affect on me.

There are, of course, many lyrics I could alter into a poem about Dr. Marable. For some weird reason i can't figure out, I'm not sure I'll do that.
UPDATE 6/29/11 Although I have not written a poem about him, I briefly refer to him in the second poem here.

Tom Shelley

There is some good information about him here and here.

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews C

2011-04-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews B

2011-03-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

Peter King, Muslims, Torture, and N. Ireland

2011-03-28T20:54:00.000-07:00

I should have done this post about a week ago. I'm not sure how many people may have already figured this out, but I would be surprised if it were a large number.

Peter King, a GOP US Representative from New York, has been a big supporter of Irish Republicanism and specifically Sinn Fein and NORAID, an American group suspected in the past of supporting the IRA, although it might be a lot more accurate to say that they supported and today support SF. He is very conservative and has expressed support for the use (in the War on Terror, in Iraq, and Afghanistan) of interrogation techniques that are torture (for example, see this and this). He has also spear-headed congressional hearings on the alleged radicalization of American Muslims (see this, this and this)

In the 2nd link from the bottom of the above paragraph, is a post on the blog of the Southern Poverty Law Center. In the discussion I spent a lot of time explaining that the IRA was/is not a terrorist organization- people thought King was a bigoted hypocrite because he supported the IRA’s campaign but is hostile to groups like Al-Qaeda which a lot of people think are comparable to the IRA. Although this doesn’t have anything to do with the question of terrorism, in another way it’s relevant to point out that there are many things indicating that the IRA over the last 30 years or so has been more or less left-wing (it's probably safe to assume that, for example, if a majority of SF members are anti-homophobic, a similar majority of IRA members are anti-homophobic) (for some examples of that see some of this and most of the first half of this).

***

UPDATE 11/10/11 These two paragraphs are replacing three poorly written paragraphs that said roughly what I'm saying now.

In the SPLC discussion I forgot a few things that I need to mention here. First, there were unsucesful attempts at killing civilians- well, the odds are that something like .05% of the IRA’s operations were in that category. The % for intentionally killing civilians is somewhere around .25%. That would mean that 80% of the time they were trying to kill civilians, they did. This makes sense because for a skilled group like the IRA, killing civilians would have been very easy. I should also mention that I have heard of two operations where they were only trying to spread terror- that sort of thing is probably something like .05% of their operations.

When the IRA were bombing commercial property, they almost always (or always) planned on issuing a warning. Something like 99% of the time the warning was issued, the target was evacuated and no one was killed. The goal of such operations was at least partly to inflict financial damage on the business community who, it was hoped, would then pressure the British government to withdraw from Ireland. They wee probably also aimed at demonstrating that the IRA was not beaten as the British would often claim. Bombings of non-military property were aimed at disrupting government operations, and putting pressure directly on the government (warnings were always or almost always issued and civilians were evacuated). The issuing of warnings in these two categories, and the tiny % of the time that they intentionally killed civilians and the fact that somewhere around half their operations were aimed at the security forces, all indicate that terrorizing civilians was not a goal in the minds of some very large % of IRA members and leaders. (the content of this paragraph is what I forgot when, in the SPLC blog discussion, I conceded that the IRA had tried to terrorize a couple of small parts of the UK population)

***

I can understand people wanting to expose King as the bigoted hypocrite he is, but doing so by calling the IRA terrorists is just not accurate or helpful. What would be a great approach would be to focus on the issue of torture- torture used by the US or it’s allies in recent years, and the torture used by the British in the early 1970s in N. Ireland. King LOVES water-boarding and in general approves of the torture techniques used by the US. I know that some methods have been used in both situations. I’m not as familiar with the details as I could be and I’m not capable right now of engaging in an off-line discussions with journalists, or debate with supporters of King. But I figure some of you, or someone that one of you knows will want to have the information ready to attack King over his bigoted hypocrisy. The thing is, you can find a lot of info about the Irish part of this in a book that is (mostly) available on-line here. Although the author was very partisan as a republican, his book seems to be well respected as the web-site it’s on is very neutral and academic, and about 1/3 of the information the site offers on the subject of internment in the early 1970s was written by him.

UPDATE 5/31/11 I'm still not feeling like reading the book linked to right above to refresh my memory and learn some new details. But while reading another very good source, I found a brief description of the "sensory deprivation" techniques used on eleven of the internees. According to Michael Farrell's "Northern Ireland: The Orange State" (page 283) they were hooded the entire time; they were completely isolated, and didn't know where they were; they were severely beaten; they were forced to stand spread-eagled against walls until they collapsed; they were given hardly any food; they were subjected to "white noise;" they were prevented from sleeping. The book also refers to another torture technique used on the internees in general (apparently not the 11 I just referred to). That was taking hooded internees up in helicopters, and then, when the helicopter comes back down to a few feet above the ground, the internee is pushed out, thinking that he's much higher up than he is. Sounds like water-boarding.

If King’s bigoted hypocrisy is highlighted and becomes an issue in America, that will make it very likely that Sinn Fein will tell him to go away. If they do that publicly, it will, to some small degree, probably affect how much support he has. Also, it will probably result in Sinn Fein changing their approach to generating support in America (in a way that both SF and the American left will benefit from).

In any case, I hope this was worth your time to read- I really think that King can be hammered on this. And maybe you or someone you know will be able to use the information about torture in N. Ireland.

Tom

Star Trek: The Original Series Reviews A

2011-03-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews T

2011-03-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews S

2011-03-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

Irish-Americans, N. Ireland, and YDS

2011-03-02T20:38:00.000-08:00

I’m going to do one post here that’s a new sort of post for me, there might be some more on the same theme in the next weeks and/or months. To a small degree it’ll involve me getting a little personal (something I have overwhelmingly avoided while doing this blog)l, but will be mostly political and in-line with the themes of this blog. And for now I will provide only the most relevant information, I will give basically zero background and won’t mention other things related to the topic. I am doing this because I believe there are a lot of people out there who really don’t like me, mostly because of a failure on my part to explain things.

In June of 2001, I was a very active member of the Young Democratic Socialists, youth wing of the Democratic Socialists of America. I had been a member of DSA since 1994-1995 and was often active. During those first seven years I was involved to some degree with about 25 events. Not counting about five events (i.e. events in Denver, or in the dorms) there was an average of 45 people at each event I organized. (I resigned my membership in DSA in May of 2002) I think that is basically all the background you need.

In June that year, Sinn Fein overtook the Social Democratic and Labour Party as the largest party of the nationalist community. This was in two elections on the same day- local elections using Single Transferable Vote and Proportional Representation and British parliamentary elections that are First Past the Post. I sent something about the results to the YDS-Discussion list. Someone responded and asked if YDS had a position on N. Ireland.

I’m going to skip some details at this point. I said I would type something up (I was a member of the leadership at that point). After a month, with a fair amount of discussion and a fairly (possibly very) good job done by me, I withdrew it. There were too many problems with it.

The main point of me typing this up is to explain one of the arguments I offered in support of YDS taking a position on N. Ireland (of course that position would have to be more or less (possibly very less) in support of Irish Republicanism for this to work). I felt like the good that could be done with such a resolution (encouraging people to work on that issue to one degree or another (from one person signing a petition that’s going around to a YDS chapter doing an event on this issue)) was obvious, so I unfortunately didn’t say much if anything at all about that (I said a lot about the background to the conflict, but not, “this will help...”). One of the reasons that I DID offer was that it would help us attract a certain part of the population- Irish-Americans (depending on what the resolution said, we’d probably be talking about people who are more or less Sinn Fein supporters). Without further explanation by me, this must have sounded questionable, and that’s probably what a lot of YDSers thought; or thought it was even worse than questionable. Here are some things I should have mentioned:

*I was thinking overwhelmingly about I-As who are already liberal (liberals who are in transition towards the left and also some who aren't- see the 4th item below), progressive or left-wing.

*There’s a good minority of Americans who work on this from the right perspective who are not Irish-American, and about 1/2 of such people are people of color. I was also thinking it would attract some of them. For more of my thoughts on that, see this, and this one is also relevant.

*Going back to attracting Irish-Americans and/or people interested in N. Ireland, I should explain that even with the former group, I don’t see the harm, although I can understand people thinking I’m an idiot or an ass-hole. But YDS and DSA wanted to attract more members and I saw that as the icing on the cake of making an important statement on an important issue.

*On a related note, the issue of N. Ireland can be used to drag Irish-Americans towards the Left (talk with them about how N. Ireland is not the only place with bigotry, national oppression, etc.). That would be most successful if it involved a left-wing group that appreciated the importance of the N. Ireland issue ( I explain why it’s important for American political activists in this post).

I think that should clarify what I meant.

Tom

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews R

2011-02-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Borderland,” “Cold Station 12,” “The Augments” See the links for a plot summary.

This three-parter contains one very large political theme and a couple smaller ones. The big one is the question of genetic engineering. My thoughts on this are here while discussing the episode “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?”

At one point one of the augments and Archer have the following exchange:

Malik: We were defending our right to exist.

Archer: You’ve already killed over 25 people. Your existence has a pretty high price.

Malik: It could get higher.

Obviously they are pretty much unable to co-exist with normal people, and StarFleet was right to prevent any more augments from being born.

The other issues:

1. We learn that at one point Earth space ships were nuclear-powered, something which I have mixed feelings about. Could cause serious environmental problems on Earth.

2. There’s also an element of slavery. First, when the slaves can no longer be controlled by the neurolytic restraints, they rebel, which is pretty cool.

It raises the question for me, shouldn’t StarFleet do something about the Orion slave trade? It doesn’t count as an internal issue for the Orions because they enslave outside of their race most of the time. And even if it were internal, I’m very open-minded about StarFleet intervening anyway. I have difficulty imaging that happening with black slaves in America, since I don’t think there was a world power comparable to Earth. I mean, the British were fairly against slavery after some point before the American Civil War, but I’m not sure if they would be an ideal candidate for this. Would black slaves in America have welcomed liberation in that way? I’m not sure. But of course they did welcome liberation at the end of the Civil War, and of course many of them fought for the Union in that war.

On a non-political note, it was brilliant of them to have Brent Spiner play Soong, an ancestor of the man who created Data (The Next Generation).

I give this three-parter five stars out of five.

“The Forge,” “Awakening,” and “Kir’Shara” See the links for a plot summary.

This three-parter has one main theme- religious persecution, and there are several minor things that come up here and there:

I’m against religious persecution, although there would of course be some exceptions- for example if children are being abused in some way. My thoughts on religion can be found here, here (while discussing the episode "Who Watches The Watchers?"), here (while discussing the episode "Destiny"), here (while discussing the episode "In The Hands Of The Prophets").

1. At one point Archer seems to compare the different interpretations of Surock’s writing with what has happened with the Bible. The basic message I believe was that the Bible (and similar books) shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

2. The leader of the Syrrannites says that the High Command defiled the monastery of P’Jem by placing an intelligence operation there. It really is very inappropriate to use religious places for what might be called intelligence or military efforts.

3. We’re reminded that Vulcans who can do mind melds are treated poorly, and this is undoubtedly a statement against homophobia. See this when I discuss the episode “Stigma.”

4. I think this is my first exposure to the political system on Vulcan. It’s not made clear, but I got the idea that the High Command was the government; I used to think it was the leadership of the military; and what kind of civilian government leadership is known as the High Command? It also turns out that the head of the High Command (HC) organized a large-scale invasion force without the other members knowing. All members of the HC were men. Vulcan still uses the death penalty for some crimes. And lastly, there is apparently a loyalty oath that at least some Vulcans must take. Unless I’m missing something from The Original Series, I would have to say that the Vulcan government isn’t very democratic (it is suggested at one point that the head of the HC was elected).

5. The leader of the HC seems to have gone after the Syrrannites because, as pacifists, they might stir up opposition to his invasion of Andoria.

6. There is one part where a Vulcan is tortured mentally instead of physically, which Vulcans can usually resist. After that the interrogator who used torture suggests that very often people being tortured will say whatever they think their interrogator wants to hear, even if it’s not true (which makes torture ineffective in addition to being immoral).

I’m not a big fan of Vulcan episodes, so I can only give this one two stars out of five.

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews Q

2011-02-24T20:34:00.000-08:00

This is one of my posts where I “review” Star Trek episodes. I will be giving each one a star rating. I sometimes will make some comments about non-political parts of them that I like or don’t like. I’ll sometimes use the issues raised in the episode to discuss similar issues in real life. And I will sometimes simply high-light the progressive politics of ST. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post where I offer some general thoughts about ST.

I’m not very familiar with The Original Series and there might be some small amount of material there that would affect what I say about Star Trek (i.e. how often religion is mentioned)

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Storm Front” parts 1 and 2 See this, and this for a plot summary.

In some ways it’s completely political, as it’s largely about World War II. There are a few elements I’d like to comment on:

A: There’s a bit of Nazi propaganda at one point. Part of it talks about the Nazis taking down the capitalists that were responsible for The Great Depression. This raises the question of whether the Nazis were left-wing or right or a combination of the two. It makes much more sense to put them solidly on the right. The Nazis economic policies were mixed in terms of their treatment of capital. But their policy on labor was not mixed- they got ride of the unions at the very beginning of their reign. Also, they emphasized nation and race much more than class. Lastly, it was conservative politicians that let the Nazis into government in 1933 (and for some years after that, conservatives were still involved in the Nazi state).

B: A Suliban from the 22nd Century says that he didn’t know humans could be as war-like as they were during WWII, based on his knowledge of humans in the 22nd Century. Referring to humans on Earth who have not been at war with each other for many decades is a good idea. He also says that while searching for the Xindi and their weapon, Archer behaved in a way comparable to the humans during WWII (if he was referring to the Allies, that sort of makes sense, but if he was including the Axis, it makes no sense at all). I’m going to say more about this in the next review (below) (“Home”).

C: I realize there weren’t very many white, American characters in the Brooklyn parts of the two-parter, but I think it would have been more appropriate if there had been something that would briefly touch on the racism that people of color faced back then (one of the members of the resistance is a black woman). Also something about Jews being rounded up by the Nazis would have been nice.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this two-parter. I am very interested in WWII, but so far I generally don’t like Star Trek stuff about WWII. I give it three stars out of five.

“Home” See this for a plot summary.

This episode was surprisingly full of political stuff. There are two subjects: How exploring the galaxy requires an ability to fight; and bigotry.

First the bigotry. There are basically three scenes for this. On Vulcan, T’pol’s mother gets upset about the idea of Trip and T’pol getting married and having children: “Do you really believe that a human and a vulcan can have a future together. Imagine the shame your children would endure.” This is probably a reference to their kids being part human and part Vulcan and being rejected by both Vulcans and humans.

As a result of the Xindi attack, many people on Earth became xenophobic about aliens, and Phlox encounters this. Travis and Malcolm stand up to the bigots, which results in a fight. Later, Hoshi is talking with Phlox about going down to Earth:

Hoshi: So you’re going to stay on the ship because of some loud mouth in a bar?

Phlox: My presence could provoke another incident- someone could get hurt....

Hoshi: This isn’t the way to deal with prejudice. The best thing is to show your face and remind people that there are aliens who don’t want to blow up the planet.

Phlox: I can’t blame those men for the way they reacted. Earth has survived a horrific attack. It’ll take time for the trauma to heal.

As far as how to respond to bigotry, I lean towards agreeing with Hoshi. But I’m open-minded about this and would respect the feelings of those who are the targets of bigotry.

On a related issue, I can’t agree with Phlox’s last words. I don’t believe that it was okay for people to express hostility towards Arabs and Muslims after 9/11.

Archer has a lot to say about the need for firepower while exploring. In general I would sort of agree with him, but some of what he says doesn’t make much sense to me. First, when the Captain of the second ship like Enterprise asks him for advice on which StarFleet officer would be best for Tactical (which covers both the weapons systems and the security force), Archer suggests filling that position with a member of the military (apparently StarFleet is not considered part of the military). He then also suggests having a team of military riflemen on board, as he did when he went after the Xindi. It seems like StarFleet can produce people like Archer’s tactical officer- it’s totally unnecessary to fill that position with a rifleman. On the other hand, having a squad of riflemen in addition to the tactical officers and crew is probably a good idea- it seemed to work well for Enterprise. It would probably make sense to have the Tactical officers and crew handle security on-board, and the military would help in the event of being boarded but would normally be available for away missions.

More generally Archer at one point advocates for a more isolationist policy, where StarFleet would stay close to Earth as a defensive force. He doesn’t seem to really mean it.

In the last post (while discussing the episode “Zero Hour”) I talked about how Archer did some things that were immoral during the mission to find the Xindi weapon. I basically said that although he shouldn’t be tossed in jail or even tossed out of StarFleet, he should get some punishment, to make other officers understand that there are consequences for breaking or bending the rules, even for hero Captains, and they should only do so when very necessary. There is nothing about him getting in any trouble in this episode, nor the three after it (I sometimes do reviews at a slower pace than I watch the episodes at). At the end of his de-briefing, the Vulcan ambassador says that he (Archer) did some immoral things, but says they were necessary for his mission to succeed.

It turns out that in some ways, Archer is doing what needed to be done about his questionable tactics. Mountain climbing with a fellow Captain (Erika Hernandez), Archer explains why he wanted to go climbing.

Archer: I figured this was the last place I’d run into anyone who’d want to shake my hand or take my picture or tell me I’m an inspiration to their children. If they knew what I’d done...

Hernandez: You did what any Captain would have done.

Archer: Does that include torture or marooning a ship full of innocent people- Cause I don’t remember reading those chapters in the handbook.

I’m still disappointed that he didn’t receive some kind of punishment, but that exchange is better than nothing.

Overall I give this episode three stars out of five.

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews P

2011-02-19T21:08:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews O

2011-02-18T18:29:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews N

2011-02-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews M

2011-02-12T12:38:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews L

2011-02-08T16:55:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews K

2011-02-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews J

2011-02-05T19:28:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews I

2011-02-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews H

2011-02-02T19:16:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews G

2011-01-31T10:37:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews F

2011-01-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews E

2011-01-28T13:02:00.000-08:00

This is the 116th of my posts that are reviews of episodes of the TV show Star Trek (some will be more analysis/commentary on them, and I’ll kind of be using this as another excuse to talk about my beliefs and my thoughts on bigotry, N. Ireland, and various political issues). I’m starting with Deep Space Nine. ST is in-line with the three original themes of this blog, as I explain in the first ST post I did where I give an overview of my thoughts on ST. All the ST posts can be found by clicking on the “Star Trek” label at the bottom.

The Original Series disclaimer:
Also, although this gap in my knowledge is not complete and I will often do research to make up for this, and we are only taking about around 70 episodes, I am not familiar with The Original Series, so if I say something and there’s an exception in that series, that simply means that I was off a little bit. Unfortunately, I don’t like TOS, have see each episode an average of once, on average about 10 years ago, and for various reasons I’m not going to familiarize myself with it anytime soon. Unfortunately I love the three series from 1990s, like Enterprise, and am going to do this anyway. I doubt it’ll more than very slightly affect something like 1% of the reviews I do of the 1990s series- when I’m done with those, that’ll be about 525 episodes, so about 5 reviews, and it won’t affect what I’m saying about real life politics, just what I say about ST, and then probably just a little bit.

Lastly. multi-culturalism is such a pervasive theme in ST that I only comment on it when it goes beyond the norm (i.e. inter-species partners).

“Vox Sola” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars.

“Fallen Hero” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.

“Desert Crossing” See this for a plot summary.

This is partly about a conflict generated by caste discrimination.

I give it three stars out of five.

“Two Days and Two Nights” See this for a plot summary.

A non-political episode. I give it three stars out of five.

“Shockwave” Parts 1 and 2 See this and this for a plot summary.

A non-political two-parter, but a good one, even if it involves the Suliban and the "Temporal Cold War" (that aspect of this series is something I don’t like). I like the part about Archer and Daniels being trapped in the future. I give four stars out of five.

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews D

2011-01-27T14:07:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews C

2011-01-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews B

2011-01-22T18:26:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: Enterprise Reviews A

2011-01-21T17:14:00.000-08:00

Religious Bigotry of "New Atheists" UPDATE 12/14/10

2010-11-16T20:28:00.000-08:00

I have taken part in a discussion on one of the anti-nazi groups at Last.FM. It's about left hostility towards religious people.

The discussion is here. Below is the main contribution I made to it.

Also, antifa is a reference to militant anti-fascism.

UPDATE 12/14/10 I just posted a second comment of significance. It is below the first comment in this post, and you can see what I am responding to by clicking the link above.

Tom

"I generally agree with the post above. There's a lot of people in various religions who are not fundamentalists, they're not bigots. I mean, a survey by one of the Pew centers, found about 45% of American Catholics support gay marriage. Today, I believe that islam IS going through a period where the fundies and bigots are some kind of large majority, but there are plenty of exceptions (for example I've heard that Bosnian Muslims are generally not fundies).

You can oppose their bigotry and pro-life politics without attacking their religion completely. In fact I can think of ways to do that without discussing their religion at all. One problem with the new Atheist approach is that the fundies will have more success convincing people that opponents of homophobia (for example) are anti-Christian, which will strengthen their position. The New Atheists, to whatever degree they are progressives or leftists, are promoting division among those communities and are distracting us from important work that needs to be done.

So, it isn't helpful. And as the poster above says, it is bigotry. If you're hostile towards someone because of their religion, you're a bigot.

And to the person who started this, who is "strictly antifa." You can hate their bigotry without hating their religion. I don't know why you think you can be "strictly antifa" and hate Muslims and Jews because of their religion.

Actually I guess that if you want to attack the fundies FUNDAMENTALISM, go ahead. I say that partly because they're making a big deal about their religion. And I'm sure religiously motivated leftists would be happy to debate you about their religion, but this hatred towards EVERYONE who believes in religion is bigotry. Speaking about myself and millions of others, our faith is something we don't advertise and only talk about it when it comes up. it's not nice knowing that there are people out there who hate me because of my religion.

I think that's about all I have to say.

Tom"

New comment:

"When you say that Atheists are oppressed, to some small degree I agree. Looking at America, they don't have the political representation they should have; there's harrassment based on Atheists' beliefs about God (that harrassment isbigotry); Possibly some other things, although I wouldn't be surprised if atheists are above average financially and are more likely to have gone to College. So, to some small degree, they are oppressed as atheists.

That hostility doesn't justify hostility to all religious people because they are religious.

In response to The Dark Silence:

I don't think you have a good grip what most religious people seek in religion. I am religious as a Catholic and get the following out of it:

1. A theory to explain what happens when we die.
2. Reading the Bible when I was young planted the seeds that became my socialist beliefs about 15 years ago.
3. A sense of community (the church that I used to go to was very liberal, and more or less not fundamentalist) (haven't switched churches, just haven't been going to church for a while).
4. I think there's another one I'm forgetting, or it could be what i'll say right here- it's easier for me to deal with my mom's death believing that she is in Heaven.

Tom"

Glenn Beck, American Unity, Capitalist Exploitation

2010-10-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I submitted some comments for two blog posts at Hatewatch, the blog of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The first one was about how workers are exploited. What I said I'm sure has been said better by others, but I have never seen an explanation of exploitation like this one. I think it's pretty good and might be helpful for people.

The post is here. A few things I need to clarify about my comments:

1. When I talk about workers exerting themselves, I mean PHYSICALLY exerting themselves.
2. Of course the wealth re-distribution of progressive taxation involves funding stuff like free universal health-care, free day-care, etc.
3. The figure of 300 (actually something like 100-400 is a better way of putting it) only makes sense with national corporations; with small businesses 20 is probably much more accurate and small business owners probably work more than their employees do (in general, what I'm talking about doesn't apply much to small businesses (there are certainly plenty of exceptions where it DOES apply), depending on how you define small- I lean towards saying it's 1 to somewhere around 50 employees)

Here's the comment:

"
Tom Shelley said,

on October 21st, 2010 at 11:57 am

A response to Rick Nettleton:

How have Democrats contributed to hate? You seem to think that Democratic hate for conservatives is comparable to the hatred against Muslims, LGBT people. I mean the problem with the Tea Party isn’t that they hate liberals, it’s the racism, and homophobia and anti-muslim bigotry. You can’t compare that with hating conservatives.

No, corporations and rich people are not paying their share of taxes. They can easily give more and still live better than the rest of us. Progressive taxation is an important way to re-distribute wealth. And why is it necessary to do so? Because to one degree or another, workers are exploited by the bosses. The details differ a bit from job to job, but for the most part, workers are exerting themselves A LOT more than the people at the top of the corporation; they’re also using their heads almost as much as those at the top. And yet the people at the top make about 300 times more than the workers at the bottom. That is obscene.

As far as business and the nation’s wealth- 1) the WORKERS are responsible for building this country and 2) that wealth is not enjoyed by the overwhelming majority of the population.

Tom"

The second comment is here. Some things I need to clarify:

1. The 9.12 project is partly based on the following (from the 9.12 website, here):

"This is a non-political movement. The 9-12 Project is designed to bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001. The day after America was attacked we were not obsessed with Red States, Blue States or political parties. We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the greatest nation ever created.

That same feeling – that commitment to country is what we are hoping to foster with this idea. We want to get everyone thinking like it is September 12th, 2001 again."

Here's the comment:

#
Tom Shelley said,

on October 21st, 2010 at 11:26 pm

Some thoughts on the 9.12 project:

I hadn’t heard of it beforte this post (I am not following current events and politics as much as I should). I looked at the web-site and I find the idea of Glenn Beck promoting civic unity and bringing Americans together ridiculous. First there is what he has been saying recently (see http://mediamatters.org/search/index?qstring=glenn+beck&x=0&y=0 for some good examples (certainly his talk of hunting progressives the same way Israel went after Nazis)). I mean, he called Obama an anti-white racist and now he wants us to all come together? Then, as far as the spirit of American unity since 9/11 we have plenty of evidence that a new McCarthyism took over the political right, as The Progressive has docuemented at- http://www.progressive.org/list/mccarthy?page=18 .We have Coulter writing a book that calls all liberals/leftists traitors. She said that the American Taliban (the teenager captured sjortly after 9/11) should be executed because she believes that liberals need to be physically intimidated.

During WWII the UK had a coalitiion government because they saw that in that war they needed unity. Bush could have had a few cabinet positions given to Democrats (Cllinton, in the late 1990s when we were NOT in a major and prolonged war, had a Republican for a Secretary of Defense) but he didn’t, and instead used 9/11 to push his radical agenda.

i think I’m missing ione more element of this, but I think I’ve made my point. It’s a joke for Beck to talk about unity.

Tom"

Newt Gingrich, anti-colonialism, and Obama

2010-09-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

I am a little late on this one, but it seems as if very few people have said what I'll say. This post is about an aspect of Newt Gingrich's comment that Obama has a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" world view. MANY people have pointed out that this is partly about suggesting that Obama might have been born in Kenya. What gets my attention is the "anti-colonial" part. Is Gingrich saying that opposing colonialism is bad? it sounds like that to me. Specifically, is he saying that the Kenyan anti-colonial struggle was wrong? I'd like to see someone grill him on that.

Also, of course, as far as I can tell, Obama is very far from being some kind of anti-colonial crusader. He isn't putting tons of pressure on Israel about the Palestinians; he is not doing that with the British about N. Ireland; and there are other similar situations.

Responding to opponents of the "Ground Zero Mosque"

2010-09-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

Part of this is a bit late, but there are two things I’d like to mention about anti-Muslim bigotry.

First is a response to opponents of the “Ground Zero Mosque.” I’m not sure how many people have figured it out or been told about it, but it can’t hurt to get the word out some more. When the opponents say that the people behind the community center/mosque should build it someplace else to put an end to the controversy and not offend people (i.e. relatives of people killed on 9/11) there’s a great response I thought of a few days ago. Compare their request with the request that Rosa Parks move to the back of the bus (in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955). She didn’t and those behind the Mosque/community center shouldn’t be pressured by people to back down over where to build it.

There is something similar in N. Ireland’s recent history. In 2001, for about 3 months residents of a loyalist area tried to block Catholic children from going to a Catholic school just inside the area. Some parents and their children took a different route to the back door. Many/most took the normal route to the school, even though the loyalists hurled a lot of verbal abuse and objects at them. I found a flyer in Belfast not long after that which compared their decision to take the normal route with Rosa Parks’ action.

Second, I heard about 2 weeks ago that a major and festive holiday for Muslims (Eid) will this year fall on Sept. 11th. I’m not sure what can be done to avoid violence towards Muslims on that day (I can easily see bigots getting pissed off that Muslims are celebrating on 9/11). I thought it couldn’t hurt to mention this, and it might help in some way.

Dr. Laura, Sarah Palin, and Racism

2010-08-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

I was a little behind on reading about this, but I am really offended by the comments Dr. Laura made and the defense that Palin has offered. (to see what I'm talking about, go here)

There's more info, including a partial transcript and a partial audio recording (they're not the same parts of the discussion) here.

I agree with what is written here.

I might add some analysis to this, but Media Matters has done a good job of doing that, so for now I'll just let you read the links, especially the last two.

Live Long and Prosper

2010-01-07T17:58:00.000-08:00

I just posted the last Star Trek review. As I explained somewhere, the main idea I had was to highlight the progressive politics of ST. That was about 1/3; using the plot of the episodes as an excuse, about 1/3 of the time I was discussing real world politics similar to what was happening in the episodes; and 1/3 I was making brief, non-political comments about the episodes, as well as rating them with between one and five stars.

I wish there was more political content- I had nothing to comment on politically for about 1/2 of all the episodes, even more for Voyager and The Next Generation. But I’m still glad I did it.

I’m now going to start watching Star Trek: Enterprise, but from what I remember there’s almost zero political content at all, except for one whole season which seems to be inspired by a moderate (not progressive) look at 9/11. So I’m not going to do any reviews of that. UPDATE 1/29/10 After watching the first of four seasons, I think there might be enough good liberal-progressive material to justify doing reviews; If that's what I notice with the last 3 seasons, then next time I watch ENT, in about 2 years, I'll do reviews.

Unless I start doing a better job of follwoing the news (looking at everything, I’ve been reading about 60 articles a week) this will probably be the last post I do. The blog contains almost nothing that will be affected by current events. Which also means that you can and should read the earlier posts and feel free to comment on them. (the earlier posts are NOT Star Trek reviews, they are mostly essays about the themes of this blog)

I think that’s it.

Tom

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews KK

2010-01-07T11:37:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews JJ

2010-01-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews II

2010-01-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews HH

2009-12-29T09:20:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews GG

2009-12-18T16:36:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews FF

2009-12-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews EE

2009-12-15T10:41:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews DD

2009-12-13T16:55:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews CC

2009-12-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews BB

2009-12-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews AA

2009-12-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews Z

2009-12-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reviews Y

2009-11-30T15:21:00.000-08:00