Consciousness, Rob Reiner, Politics, Feminism, Movies, Twlight Zone, Joe Ely Gone: Muncie This Thursday

 I am not feeling well today. It certainly has not gone well for me since this morning. My only accomplishment is getting a research job done.

I have only left the apartment to take out some trash. It is raining. Another day of missing Liturgy. 

Yesterday was mostly doing the research project and watching a South Korean show on Tubi. I did watch Trump. Since everyone and their brother has commented on the lies and uselessness of the speech, I will keep silent. The upside, the only one, was he did not use up our time threatening Venezuela. Before I decided not to write about Trump demonstrating his incompetence and hatred, I collected a few items that I thought were relevant:

125 workers to be laid off from Muncie manufacturing facility 

Many Hoosiers can’t afford Indiana and need state lawmakers to deliver 

Truth Social users and callers on right-wing media shows are mad about Trump's comments on Rob Reiner (Rob Reiner was a better person than Trump and deserved better than Trump gave him and his wife.)

Trump’s Appalling Reiner Reaction Is a Sign of Something Deeply Wrong (The National Review!)

 

 I meant to use today reading. This is all that I got done between 1:30 and 4.

A Good Neighbor (Boston Review) discusses some of Marcel Ophuls's films. None that I have seen, but I knew the name Ophuls - not because of him, but his father - and so I read the essay. Now, I wish I had seen his movies. But the following paragraph left me feeling I had seen more evidence of our cultural stagnation.

Ophuls’s intellectualism, his wryness and urbanity, his discerning moral sense—these may have been useful when criticizing a liberal establishment that did not live up to its own ideals. One naturally wonders how useful they are when confronting anti-liberal forces with bad ideals, or none. Ophuls made films at a time when he could count on his viewers’ attention span and the existence of a self-confident liberal establishment, firmly in command and practically begging to be exposed for its hypocrisy. Both are in decline, and the forces that drove Ophuls and his family out of Europe are on the rise again.

Tainted Ladies (Boston Review) I read just because I wondered if it might explain what I do not understand about modern politics; another reminder I need to write up the past three weeks of the group sessions.

Perhaps the same goes for what has come to be called the “anti-gender” movement: a global right-wing reaction against a loose collection of things including women’s rights, trans people, gay marriage, and drag queen story hour. It’s easy to blame the media or the “manosphere,” but it’s worth asking whether there might be anything about liberal feminism that helps to explain its collapse. That does not have to mean that feminism has “gone too far.” It might instead reveal a sense in which our dominant strain of feminism has not gone far enough: too focused on elite representation in the prevailing order, it has failed to advance the interests of women in general and to stand against the things—neoliberalism, austerity, war—that harm women disproportionately. In any case, the present mood does not seem to me to have come out of nowhere. It feels like the fuller-throated expression of a rumbling that was there all along, just below the surface of a superficial consensus that was more grudging, and more fragile, than many realized.

From the group sessions, I get the impression men are constantly fantasizing about what they can do to the objects of their desires, that there is a neo-Victorian moralism requiring sex only within a relationship, and that possession is the object of passion rather than experience. I guess there is misogyny in there, too; towards whom I am not so sure. I feel more certain there is superstition. 

The essay points to one instance of superstition.

The proponents of the anti-gender movement are not against gendered norms and roles and distinctions. On the contrary, they are keen to defend a semi-mythical “traditional” order in which boys are boys and girls are girls and nothing troubles this binary divide. Thus, as Butler observes, those who claim to be against “gender ideology” are really defending a gender ideology of their own. As with that other whistle-word “critical race theory,” few who use the term “gender ideology” seem to be quite sure what it means, but they don’t let that stop them—indeed, as Butler also points out, the very vagueness enhances its phantasmic power. They know that it has something to do with a proliferation of pronouns, assorted forms of gender-bending, and corruption of the youth, and that is enough.

But more interesting to me is this:

In that sense, it is right to call what we’re experiencing a backlash, albeit not against feminism at its finest. Rather, as Sarah Banet-Weiser has argued, a “popular feminism” that equates liberation with personal empowerment and zero-sum advancement has found its dark reflection in a “popular misogyny” that promises to do the same for men. Contemporary anti-feminism’s demonization of women as calculating and untrustworthy “hypergamists” might likewise be seen as an inverted image of a feminism that has effectively equated womanhood with depoliticized goodness or righteousness. One expression of this is in the omnipresent demand for increased “representation.” Few who call for more women in power as a demand of justice can resist adding some promissory note about the therapeutic effects that a woman’s touch might bring, to the boardroom and the battlefield as much as to the political party.

But feminism’s achievement of a certain institutional and cultural hegemony, however shallow and however precarious, is a weapon that can be used for good or ill—and since women are not angels but flawed and compromised human beings, it is no surprise to find it used in both ways: as self-defense and resistance against the everyday injuries and indignities that a sexist status quo inflicts; and more cynically, for convenience, advancement, interpersonal point-scoring or petty revenge. The point is not that things have “swung too far in the other direction,” as some would put it. The larger context is still one in which women are systematically disempowered and in which violent misogyny has deep roots, as the current groundswell testifies. Hegemonic feminism appears in this setting as little more than a carnivalesque reversal of the kind that has always been part and parcel of patriarchy (where it goes by disparaging terms such as “hen-pecking” or “wearing the trousers”), but now with a feminist face: a sphere of a limited, cathartic comeuppance playing out within a structure which remains in fundamental respects stubbornly unmoved. 

Claiming moral superiority becomes self-righteousness become despotic.

Something to make you feel better this time of the year: Good People Also Get What's Coming to Them: Revisiting The Twilight Zone’s Christmas Episodes (Reactor)

Another sign of our decline? The internet in 2025: Bigger, more fragile than ever - and 'fundamentally rewired' by AI (ZDNET)

And now I am tired. I started three pieces that I thought would be interesting, and got bored too quickly.

I may come back to this: Top Reads | 2025 | Fiction (Granta)

 I knocked for an hour and a half before starting up again.

 My face and eyes feel feverish without me feeling any high temperatures.

I knocked off the last overs from last night. Probably not wise, the oyster dressing that I tarted up with vegetables kept waking during the night. It was the addition of the jalapeño pepper that was a bit too much. I tried napping around noon, but that didn't really work.

Evening shift, so to speak - high winds and lots of rain right now.

We Love You, Rob Reiner (Crime Reads)

Befitting his lovable, bear-huggy, big-hearted reputation in life, though, onscreen and behind the camera, no matter the genre, he produced powerful, moving, and inspiring stories that center the importance of love, friendship, and family. His movies changed my life. I’m sure they also changed yours

 How true.

Maps Mapped: Every State’s Share of U.S. GDP - Well, Indiana is doing better than Kentucky!

Consciousness interests me - why do we have it? That explains my reading Why Consciousness Evolved (Neuroscience), but thinking it's important to us is why I make note of it here.

What is the evolutionary advantage of our consciousness? And what can we learn about this from observing birds? Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum published two articles on this topic.

Although scientific research about consciousness has enjoyed a boom in the past two decades, one central question remains unanswered: What is the function of consciousness? Why did it evolve at all?

The answers to these questions are crucial to understanding why some species (such as our own) became conscious while others (such as oak trees) did not. Furthermore, observing the brains of birds shows that evolution can achieve similar functional solutions to realize consciousness despite different structures.

The working groups led by Professors Albert Newen and Onur Güntürkün at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, report their findings in a current special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B from November 13, 2025.

***

Albert Newen and Carlos Montemayor categorize three types of consciousness, each with different functions: 1. basic arousal, 2. general alertness, and 3. a reflexive (self-)consciousness.

“Evolutionarily, basic arousal developed first, with the base function of putting the body in a state of ALARM in life-threatening situations so that the organism can stay alive,” explains Newen.

“Pain is an extremely efficient means for perceiving damage to the body and to indicate the associated threat to its continued life. This often triggers a survival response, such as fleeing or freezing.”

A second step in evolution is the development of general alertness. This allows us to focus on one item in a simultaneous flow of different information. When we see smoke while someone is speaking to us, we can only focus on the smoke and search for its source.

“This makes it possible to learn about new correlations: first the simple, causal correlation that smoke comes from fire and shows where a fire is located. But targeted alertness also lets us identify complex, scientific correlations,” says Carlos Montemayor.

Humans and some animals then develop a reflexive (self-)consciousness. In its complex form, it means that we are able to reflect on ourselves as well as our past and future. We can form an image of ourselves and incorporate it into our actions and plans.

“Reflexive consciousness, in its simple forms, developed parallel to the two basic forms of consciousness,” explains Newen.

“IN such cases conscious experience focuses not on perceiving the environment, but rather on the conscious registration of aspects of oneself.”

This includes the state of one’s own body, as well as one’s perception, sensations, thoughts, and actions. To use one simple example, recognizing oneself in the mirror is a form of reflexive consciousness.

This feel shocking, what will come of their research could shake our human vanity, if not more.

In this article, we start from the assumption that consciousness is not the ultimate triumph of human evolution but rather represents a more basic cognitive process, possibly shared with other animal phyla.

In this article, we show that there is growing evidence that (i) birds have sensory and self-awareness, and (ii) they also have the neural architecture that may be necessary for this.

 A rejection came in through the email:

Thank you very much for submitting "The Dead and The Dying" to Dzanc Books' Short Story Collection Competition. We received a record number of entries this year, and had a deeply difficult time choosing a first-place collection.  Unfortunately, your work was not selected as our winning title; however, we truly appreciate your interest and your patience, and we hope you'll consider us for future works. 

The winning submission, along with the long- and shortlist honorees, will be announced Monday, December 22.

Sincerely,

Michelle Dotter

Dzanc Books

 I just remembered I got my meds yesterday. I need to take them. There was a run to Payless, too.

I wonder if this is not a sensible idea, considering the points noted above about feminism: Boys aged 11 to be sent on anti-misogyny courses. It might even prevent some of the behavior I see in the group sessions and read about elsewhere.

Boys as young as 11 will be sent on anti-misogyny courses designed to stamp out violence against women and girls, under government plans.

Pupils who show harmful behaviour will be signed up to “behaviour change programmes” in schools. The courses will be “focused on challenging deep-rooted misogynist influences”.

***

The programmes could cover image-based abuse, peer pressure, coercive behaviour, online harassment and stalking, and the fact that pornography does not reflect real relationships. 

Some silliness, but I remember several of these failed TV shows:

 

Going off to the weeds in more than one way: The Forgotten Crops of North America: The Eastern Agricultural Complex

 I tried to make an effort at reading, the planned event of the day. I found The Unreliable Man by Lucien R. Starchild (Short Story Substack) - brilliant. It is meta and funny and also heart-warming. If you saw Stranger than Fiction, it is along the same lines.

I also read Patron Sainting by Ed Ahern. I sent "Thomas Kemp Went Missing" to Underside Stories, and I think I see why they rejected.  

I am not sure why Eye Fucking Men Across New York City from “Shapeshifter” by Maggie Love (Electric Literature) disturbs me as much as it does. I think - mostly - it is I do not understand the New York setting, and yet is not entirely without points transferable to out here in the boondocks. It may be that it got me thinking of some people I knew, that it got me wondering what became of their lives these past 20, 30 years - drugs and alcohol taking them down into the ground, or getting to where the air was cleaner and finding a relationship that enhanced their lives, or jumping on the conveyor belt of marriage and kids and a dead-end job lasting until death came for them?

 Joe Ely died. That shook me.

 

Joe Ely is a musician I came to through The Clash. He was one musician I kept listening to even after TJ and I parted ways. Even up to now. I never understood why he never made it bigger, but maybe that is the point of his life. He kept producing work worth listening to, regardless what the world might think.

 Where I started with Joe:

 

 

This was his last album I bought before my arrest:

 

 

I do believe these are from his last album:

 

 

And back to the past, I think, to close out:

 

Maybe it's his dying that made me think of the past so much tonight. Maybe it is just my not feeling well on a dark and nasty night. When I was younger, I attached several of his songs to girlfriends gone. It also now crosses my mind that association stopped about the time depression took ahold of me.

 I will close with this video from Leonard Peltier:

 We can do better, we need to learn to do better, else we will have no claim for being humane creatures.

Enough.

Keep well, you who read this.

sch 

To Divide Human Beings By Fear

The Enlightenment's Apocalypse: Harvard, Antisemitism, and the Future of Science  (Marginalia Review of Books)

The future of science now depends on whether we can resolve the crisis of antisemitism. One need not agree with the truth of this claim to recognize the importance of its plausibility and the scope of its significance. Harvard’s current loss of over two billion dollars in scientific funding due to antisemitism has implications far beyond its own campus. Science underlies or influences practically every aspect of the contemporary world, not least its economic growth. When the Cambridge mathematical physicist turned historian of science Derek de Solla Price discovered a quantitative law (now called Price’s Law) governing the growth rate of science, he created the basis of a new field, scientometrics. Price’s Law was the discovery that science grows at an exponential rate, roughly doubling in size every 10-20 years. The field of scientometrics provides significant evidence that economic growth depends increasingly on scientific innovation, with America playing a role so large (87% of the most important science-dependent patents between 2012 and 2016 were American) that if one imagined away American science, one not only imagines away much of the current global science system, but also much of America’s economic power. But what does any of this have to do antisemitism?

***

Science and antisemitism are intertwined in three important ways, one of which is obvious (Harvard’s current crisis), the second of which is clear but not widely appreciated (the Jewish contribution to science in America), and the third of which is subtle and complex (the deep historical context of antisemitism). At the heart of these connections are debates, going back to the Enlightenment, about scientific values, and whether science can resolve conflicts in values. The current crisis of science is not new, but is the last of three waves of assaults on scientific scientific authority. The first wave began as an esoteric crisis in German academia over a hundred years ago, then came to American academia in a second wave, after World War II, reaching its peak in the so-called “Science Wars” of the 1980s and 1990s, and is now crashing into popular consciousness and politics in its third wave as the Harvard crisis. 

Understood in the larger context of the history of science and of antisemitism, the Final Report of the Harvard Task Force on Combating Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias (hereafter abbreviated as the Report or the Report on Antisemitism) makes it clear that there is a deep internal crisis in academia about what constitutes a properly scientific or academic approach to reality. 

This sets up the problem well enough. And there is much here to digest, but I am a bit annoyed with this:

The fact that America’s most distinguished university is in danger of losing its leadership role in science is reasonably interpreted as symbolic: since Harvard is the “head” of the American academic establishment, the logic seems to be: if Harvard can effectively address its antisemitism crisis, then its example can be followed throughout higher education since it is the leader in global research and education. The connection between antisemitism at Harvard and a loss of funding for science might be dismissed by some as local and temporary: some student activists got out of hand, Harvard has a crisis and lost federal money, but that is all there is to it. In short, the Harvard crisis is overblown, and one should not bother to read anything deeper into it about antisemitism, science, and universities.

Is Harvard really at the head of American academia? Political power, I will agree with. But do we look to Harvard or MIT (or add your own comparison - I am picking on Cambridge, MA) for great science? 

The fact that America’s most distinguished university is in danger of losing its leadership role in science is reasonably interpreted as symbolic: since Harvard is the “head” of the American academic establishment, the logic seems to be: if Harvard can effectively address its antisemitism crisis, then its example can be followed throughout higher education since it is the leader in global research and education. The connection between antisemitism at Harvard and a loss of funding for science might be dismissed by some as local and temporary: some student activists got out of hand, Harvard has a crisis and lost federal money, but that is all there is to it. In short, the Harvard crisis is overblown, and one should not bother to read anything deeper into it about antisemitism, science, and universities.

Could this not be a wider and deeper issue than merely Harvard?

I suppose - fear - the following is true.

Hollinger’s broader argument is that the secularization of American public culture in the post-WWII era is connected to a movement of intellectuals, many Jewish, to promote a more inclusive culture, centered on science as the unifying ideal of a democratic society. The extent of antisemitism in America and the world in this era is often forgotten or ignored, but it is crucial to realize antisemitism is the historical norm, not the exception, in Western institutions and history, and it has been a sign of great ethical and intellectual progress that it was, for a time, overcome.

Antisemitism makes no sense to me. I know of no injury done to me by Jews, or even of any particular Jew. I have done so much injury to myself; blaming anyone else seems hypocritical and, thus, cowardly. No, I will keep my dislike for those who do harm to me or mine. That will always be individuals.

There is philosophy and history discussed at length that should be read as a whole. It makes clearer the essay's conclusion.

If Harvard fails, Max Weber and the fate of the German university remain our context and probable future. If Harvard succeeds in this admirable charge, it will not only solve the outstanding crisis of science and values it has inherited. It will inaugurate a new stage of the Enlightenment project, one in which the history of the Enlightenment’s failures are not denied, but are acknowledged, and in that very process, overcome.

That Germanic failure ended with the success of Allied military forces in 1945.

 The Christian Origins of Racism (Marginalia Review of Books) broadens the problem and brings it even closer to home.

Medieval claims about the Jews’ criminal role in the crucifixion consigned them to an enslaved status, indicating their inherent inferiority relative to Christians. Ecclesiastical law required Jews to behave in accordance with their subservient position; violation of these regulations constituted an additional Jewish crime. Myths of continuing Jewish violence against contemporary Christians also contributed to a view of Jews as inherent criminals, permanent and eternal enemies of Christianity. This idea undermined neighborly relations between the two faith groups, eroded sympathy for Jews, and licensed state, church and popular hostility against them.

The same elements used so effectively to racialize medieval Jews are also at work in American anti-Black racism. (While a similar argument could be made of the intersection of charges of crime and inferiority as constitutive elements of Nazi anti-Jewish racism, this era falls outside the focus of my research.) The charge of Black criminality was employed during and after the period of slavery to delegitimize the Black struggle for freedom. Although Blacks were the victims of violence from the dominant culture, they were presented as perpetrators.

***

Early modern authors reinterpreted the Biblical narratives proving criminal Jewish inferiority to explain and ascribe the same status to Black Africans. Augustine’s coordination of the figures of Cain and Ham to signify Jewish servitude as punishment for crime reappears in Iberian justifications for the enslavement of Blacks. In his fifteenth-century Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, Gomes Eanes de Zurara conflates Cain and Ham in his etiology of slavery. He explains that the enslavement of Blacks resulted from the curse Noah inflicted on his son “Caym,” which resulted in the subordination of his offspring to all other peoples. The name “Caym” combines the persons Ham and Cain, who respectively originate slavery and criminal murder in Biblical history. This amalgamation echoes Augustine’s use of both figures in his formulation of the Jews’ criminality that establishes their cursed hereditary inferiority. Alonso de Sandoval’s seventeenth-century Un tratado sobre la escalvitud explicitly pairs Cain and Ham in his account of hereditary African enslavement. He offers two explanations: the first identifies Ham as the original slave, whose offspring, the Ethiopians, were punished with dark skin; the second posits that because of Cain’s irreverence for his father, Adam cursed him with enslavement. This primal servitude manifests in the color of Cain’s skin, who, as Sandoval explains, “was of light-skinned lineage, [although] he was born dark. Thus blacks are also born as slaves, because God paints the sons of bad parents with a dark brush.” This account confusedly ascribes to Cain the punishment for Ham’s dishonoring of his father that results in the curse of hereditary slavery. While skin color does not appear in either Biblical account, by early modernity Blackness has become a sign of slavery. Transgression results in the enslavement of the perpetrator’s offspring, and Black becomes the color of permanent criminal inferiority.

***

By blaming criminality on the victims of racism, Trump and his ilk not only absolve themselves of finding reparative and just solutions to the sources of violence in our society, but more disturbingly, evade responsibility for their own history of violence against Blacks that continues to perpetuate racism today. The idea of Black criminality works to normalize and justify violence against Blacks, rendering them “deserving” of incarceration and death. It gives white people an excuse not to care, leading to the further devaluing of Black life and suspension of compassion for Black suffering, just as similar attitudes held by medieval Christians produced the same outcomes for Jews characterized as criminally inferior.

Recognizing these pernicious thought systems helps us identify their modern manifestations in order to discredit chimerical, racist allegations of criminality, resist them, and commit to changing the institutions that devalue and debase Black life. Studying the long history of racism sadly again proves William Faulkner’s dictum, invoked by candidate Obama in his 2008 speech on racism, that “the past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.” Recognizing the continuing effects of the past may help us more effectively challenge and abolish systemic racism today. 

No, I cannot think of antisemitism and racism as the tool of divide and conquer, to divide human beings by fear so that the propagators of hatred can rule over all.

But it works, doesn't it? 

Chumps.

Closer to home: The Continuing War On Science (Sheila Kennedy)

AP had a recent headline warning that the numerous anti-science bills hitting America’s statehouses are stripping away public health protections that have taken over a century to pass. The headline triggered my recollection of the MAGA “freedom” folks who refused to get vaccines or wear masks during the pandemic. Subsequent research tells us they died in far greater numbers than those who listened to their doctors.

According to the AP, more than 420 anti-science bills have been introduced across the U.S. just this year, attacking longstanding public health protections. Primary targets have been vaccines, milk safety and fluoride. The publication notes that the bills are part of an “organized, politically savvy campaign to enshrine a conspiracy theory-driven agenda into law.”The proponents of these bills like to portray the MAHA movement as a grassroots uprising, but it turns out that it is being fueled by a “web of well-funded national groups led by people who’ve profited from sowing distrust of medicine and science.”

 ***

History tells us that science denial–especially in the field of medicine– has been a constant, especially among fundamentalist religious believers. (When smallpox vaccines first came on the scene, religious figures who embraced the new science, like Cotton Mather, were accused of being “ungodly,” since smallpox was obviously God’s punishment for sin, and man had no business interfering with God’s judgment.)

Be sure those in power are vaccinated. More fear to keep control of the citizens. 

sch 11/15

My Playlist (Part Three) 5/2010

 [I am back working through my pretrial detention journal. It is out of order. Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. You can find everything from my pretrial detention journal that is published under the “Pretrial Detention” link under topics on the right hand of your screen.

Continued from My Playlist (Part Two) 5/2010 and My Playlist (Part One) 5/2010.

This particular journal entry has three problems: 1) I cannot find the last page, which is where I put the date it was written; 2) it is therefore incomplete, and 3) it is rather long. It reads as if I wrote it before I gave up the idea of suicide altogether; it is a sort of intellectual history written as an elegy. It follows a piece dated to 5/10/2010. So, sometime in early May 2010 seems right.

As for length, I am doing as I do with all my very long piece, breaking up over several posts.

The links are, of course, now. No internet access while in pretrial detention.

What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. sch 11/13/2025.]

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
2. Reds (movie)
3. Move It On Over, George Thorogood
4. Exile on Main Street, The Rolling Stones (One of the three albums I kept playing the summer of 1982)
5. Gravest Hits, The Cramps (Second of the three for the Summer of 1982)
6. The Envoy, Warren Zevon (The third album)
7. The Glass Key, Hammett (probably read during high school)
8. Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe
9. 16 Candles (movies)
10.  Streets of Fire (movie)
11. Synchronicity, The Police
12. Eat to the Beat, Blondie
13. Return of The Dark Knight (comic)
14. Howling Wolf - London Sessions 
15. Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner
16. Golden Decade II, Chuck Berry
17. Abbey Road, The Beatles
18. Glenn Miller
19. Handel's Messiah
20. Empire Burlesque, Bob Dylan
21. Sister Carrie, Dreiser 
22.  Back in the USA, MC5
23.  The films of Almodovar
24.  The Cat Who Walked Through The Walls, Robert Heinlein
25.  Cyberpunk
26. Heavy Metal (magazine) 
27. The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois 
28. The Art of War, Sun Tzu 
29. The Nation 
30. The Atlantic 
31. Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut 
32. Bruce Sterling 
33. Barrack Room Ballads, Kipling 
34. The Stray Cats [This is the only I edited; originally it was "Stray Cat Strut". I cannot countenance now that song, sch 11/13/2024.] 
35. Joe Ely (from college to now)
36. Essays, Gore Vidal
37. Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons, Kurt Vonnegut (goes back to  college)
38. The Killer (John Woo movie) 
39. Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (read after my arrest)
40. Face to Face, The Kinks 

[And that is where the list ends in 2010. A paragraph was crossed out, the next page is missing, and having transcribed it from my messy handwriting to here, I am wondering why left off two items:

1.  Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker
2. William Gibson

Okay, I admit that I had gotten away from reading Robbins by 2010, but I had also gotten away from doing much reading of fiction. Then there is my putting Bruce Sterling on the list when I continued reading Gibson. Peculiar how my mind was working then (and now, and before then, but that is how minds work, right? If you look at the posts under "books" you will see what I added during my prison years. sch 11/13/2025.]

sch 11/13/2025.]

From Out of Group Therapy: Antisemitism's History and ICE Deporting Naturalized Citizens

 Antisemitism's history came up in the group meeting last week. The person conducting our sessions (which I know I still need to get onto here) said there was antisemitism in the classical world.

Looking at Antisemitism in Antiquity and Early Christian Thought, he appears to have right, and wrong. This is just from reading the thumbnail descriptions of the books referenced. I see a quality of difference between Classical and Christian antisemitism - the latter think of Jews as Christ-killers and the former see the Jews as a different culture and a troublesome people. The Greeks and the Romans had good reasons for finding the Jews to be stiff-necked troublemakers.

 Anyone wondering what the Hellenistic Greeks had to deal with should read the Books Of Maccabees. We should be glad the Jews resisted the Greeks.

 As for the Romans, give a look at Why Did Vespasian and Titus Destroy Jerusalem? 

The Great Revolt and the destruction of the Temple were the key events that shaped the Jewish-Roman relation for centuries. By presenting a real but not particularly significant rebellion as an enormous, powerful, and dangerous foreign threat, Vespasian was able to present himself and his son Titus as military heroes who saved the people of Rome.

Two thousand years have passed since the destruction of Jerusalem. Empires have risen and fallen; humanity has made huge progress. Nevertheless, it is still not unheard of for modern leaders to utilize fear or hatred of Jews to establish their own political legitimacy and acquire wider public support. Perhaps, one day, this sad page in the history of humanity will be left behind.

I still ponder whether there is not a connection between Roman slanders of the Carthaginians and antisemitism's trope of Jews as baby killers.

 I said that ICE deported naturalized citizens. In this, I was wrong: ICE has not detained any U.S. citizen, Department of Homeland Security says.

 However, Trump has them in his crosshairs: Trump’s Justice Department wants to denaturalize citizens. Can he do that? 

According to the June 11 memo, the Justice Department’s civil division will “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence.”

The agency intends to take action against citizens who it believes “pose a potential danger to national security,” or who officials claim have acquired their citizenship through “material misrepresentations.” The division also notes that it could pursue denaturalization in “any other cases” that officials believe are “sufficiently important to pursue.”

“These categories do not limit the Civil Division from pursuing any particular case, nor are they listed in a particular order of importance,” according to the memo.

Immigration attorneys and advocacy groups warn that such sweeping guidelines — fueled by a politically motivated agenda — could end up targeting a broad spectrum of U.S. citizens.

 sch 10:54 AM

 

Writing, Shows, Politics & Some Amusements

I made it out yesterday - to Staples and Payless - but not until around noon. It was bitter cold, and missing a bus did not help my mood. I need to go out again to Payless. Having slept in this morning, I hope to get this done before noon. I have a research job to work on. 

What I got from Staples was ink. The price was outrageous. It is a good thing I do little printing. This is why I do not like ink-jet printers - the ink is ridiculously high.   

Why I went to Payless was to get something to bake. I decided that the oven might warm up the apartment, and so I needed something to bake. I settled on brownies. 

I missed the bus there, too. This did not help my temper.

The oven did help.

I managed to finish two chapters for "Chasing Ashes".

Also, finished the BBC show "The Fall" and the movie "Eye In The Sky". Thank you Tubi. About the former, it is something new for me to hear Gillian Anderson with an English accent. I think it does something for her acting - I compared her to Penélope Cruz, how her acting is smoother in Spanish films. About the latter, it feels seven more poignant now, and I miss Alan Rickman - his last lines are delivered so well, so important to the story. About both, it cuts how much time has passed since both were released.

Now for points about Indiana politics:

Lasting Statehouse fallout from Indiana redistricting debate? 

Republican Sen. Linda Rogers of Granger was among the 10 senators who had kept quiet about their redistricting stance until Thursday’s vote, when she pushed the red “no” button on her desk.

When asked whether there would be lingering hard feelings over the maps decision, Rogers said: “I hope not, I don’t think so.”

“Some of my very closest friends here and I voted differently,” she said, “and we are still very close friends.”

We will see. If not, then Indiana has changed into another MAGA haven.

 Strong schools build strong communities: Indiana’s funding system should reflect that

As Indiana invests a growing share of state dollars into private voucher schools and as local revenue declines, the consequences are starting to show. Fewer Indiana students are going to college, and those who do are increasingly leaving the state. Many do not return. High-wage employers look for states with a highly educated workforce, and Indiana’s average salary continues to fall behind the national average.

Public education is an investment that has paid off for generations. It brings communities together at a time when unity is needed. Indiana should recognize the importance of strong public schools and treat them like the priority they need to be.

As both an educator and a parent with daughters in our public schools, I see every day how much strong and well-supported schools matter. I want every student in Indiana to have the same opportunities to grow and succeed.

 And as a citizen, I agree. It may be one of the two political subjects that get me really exercised. 

 Hoosier farmers react to Trump administration aid amid tariffs

Trade wars have complicated the finances of Hoosier farmers. The American Soybean Association reported farmers will lose about $109 per acre this year. Indiana soybean growers also took a hit when the U.S. raised tariffs on China, the largest soybean buyer in the world. China stopped buying American soybeans in January.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has considered raising tariffs on fertilizer and farming equipment.

Hardin said he appreciates the administration reacting to the economic plight of farmers, but a trade war is only one part of the problem.

"I think it just is going to take more thoughtful discussions about what we can do to make sure we see input prices come down and opportunities for Indiana farmers to sell their products at better prices," Hardin said.

American farmers are facing another tough year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts production costs will continue to rise while crop cash receipts will decrease.

Randy Kron, president of the Indiana Farm Bureau, said the group is encouraged by the aid package as bankruptcies rise and profits are scarce.

"We're hopeful this will help stabilize the farm economy, sustain rural communities, and maintain affordable food prices," Kron said.

 And when will they understand they helped create this problem by voting for Trump?

Attorney general sues pornographic websites causes a bit of cognitive dissonance for me: I find Todd Rokita useless as AG, a politician not interested in his job but only in using his job to get ahead. The First Amendment has long been an interest of mine; age verification rules get some opposition as undermining the First Amendment. But I do approve of these age verification statutes, as I approve of social media bans for minors. I will happily debate this point in the comments, if anyone feels the need to comment. So, it seems Rokita's ambition has met doing his job.

However, I wonder about his case - as much as I doubt the use of walls, someone always finds a ladder longer than the wall is high. 

 “Rather than implement any form of reasonable age verification for its websites, Defendants represented to Indiana consumers, including Hoosier parents, that they had ‘completely disable[d] access to our website[s] in Indiana.’ However, Defendants have publicly admitted they know that Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), proxies, and location spoofing software may be used to continue to access Defendants’ websites in Indiana,” the lawsuit said.

In addition to Indiana’s age-verification law, Rokita’s lawsuit also alleges the defendants violated the state’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Act in several ways:

1) by making false and misleading statements regarding the accessibility of the pornographic websites by Indiana residents and 2) by misleading consumers about their alleged hosting of child sexual abuse material and nonconsensual material.

The attorney general’s office is seeking an injunction, civil penalties and costs.

“Despite these known harms to minors, the Defendants’ websites are pumping enormous amounts of pornographic content onto the internet, where minors can and do freely access it,” the lawsuit said.

 The best way to avoid minors freely access the materials is for parents to limit internet access for their minor children.

 Coming down from the state to the local, Muncie will see a new subdivision: Plans for west-side Muncie subdivision win final approval. I notice one thing, it is beyond the bus routes. There is also a question in my mind, why is this being built on the westside, an already built-up area.

Now for the amusement: My Name Is Gregor Samsa, and This Time I Woke Up as a Grad Student at Cal State San Bernardino.

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My Playlist (Part Two) 5/2010

 [I am back working through my pretrial detention journal. It is out of order. Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. You can find everything from my pretrial detention journal that is published under the “Pretrial Detention” link under topics on the right hand of your screen.

Continued from My Playlist (Part One) 5/2010.

This particular journal entry has three problems: 1) I cannot find the last page, which is where I put the date it was written; 2) it is therefore incomplete, and 3) it is rather long. It reads as if I wrote it before I gave up the idea of suicide altogether; it is a sort of intellectual history written as an elegy. It follows a piece dated to 5/10/2010. So, sometime in early May 2010 seems right.

As for length, I am doing as I do with all my very long piece, breaking up over several posts.

The links are, of course, now. No internet access while in pretrial detention.

 What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. sch 11/12/2025.]

1. The Yardbirds, Greatest Hits
2. Excitable Boy, Warren Zevon
3. The Session, Jerry Lee Lewis
4. Is She Really Going Out With Him?, Joe Jackson
5. Non-Fiction, The Blasters
6. Hard Times (movie)
7. The Sting
8. The First Saint Omnibus, Charteris
9. Star Wars
10. The Empire Strikes Back
11. London Calling, The Clash
12. Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan
13. White Album, The Beatles (this belongs higher up the list as I got it when I was leaving high school or starting college)
14. The Great Gatsby (this belongs to my Senior year of high school)
15. Playboy
16. Some Girls, The Rolling Stones
17. Axis: Bold As Love, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
18. Squeezing Out The Sparks, Graham Parker
19. My Aim Is True, Elvis Costello
20. Mott, Mott the Hoople
21. The Pretenders, The Pretenders
22. Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow
23. 1984, Orwell (high school)
24. Fahrenheit 451 (high school)
25. Brave New World, Huxley (high school)
26. From Bauhaus to Our House, Tom Wolfe
27. The Films of William Powell
28. Ran (movie)
29. Cyrano de Bergerac (This one is a little harder to date: I saw the Mr. Magoo version as a kid; then the play at Christian Theological Seminary; read the play in college; then the Depardieu movie)
30. The Rebel, Camus
31. No Exit, Sartre
32. The Wind and The Lion (movie)
33. Sullivan's Travels 
34. Rocket to Russia, The Ramones
35. Johnny Cash
    
36. Waylon Jennings
37. Hank Williams Jr.
38. Hellhound on My Trail, Robert Johnson
39. Bad Reputation, Joan Jett
40. Plays, Ibsen
41. Saint Joan, Shaw
42. The Iceman Cometh, O'Neill
43. Essays, Montaigne

[Please check out the links. To be continued and concluded in My Playlist (Part Three) 5/2010 sch 11/12/2025.]

My Playlist (Part One) 5/2010

[I am back working through my pretrial detention journal. It is out of order. Well, the order is as I have opened boxes. The date in the title is the date it was written. I hope this is not confusing. You can find everything from my pretrial detention journal that is published under the “Pretrial Detention” link under topics on the right hand of your screen.

This particular journal entry has three problems: 1) I cannot find the last page, which is where I put the date it was written; 2) it is therefore incomplete, and 3) it is rather long. It reads as if I wrote it before I gave up the idea of suicide altogether; it is a sort of intellectual history written as an elegy. It follows a piece dated to 5/10/2010. So, sometime in early May 2010 seems right.

As for length, I am doing as I do with all my very long piece, breaking up over several posts.

The links are, of course, now. No internet access while in pretrial detention.

What you are reading is what you get for your tax dollars. sch 11/12/2025.]

I tried giving this to an ex-girlfriend. She never took an interest in what I wrote. The list was shorter then . The only one who took this seriously was TJ. She even tried reading The Rebel. But she was that kind of person.

Words and music. I guess you say that is what this is. I am trying to write this from early to late. My memory declines and I have distractions as I write this. If I had not chosen to ignore what I knew, had not turned my face against saving myself, I would not be prison bound.

I always wanted to know things. Now I have seen more than I can stomach. Knowledge is the first step towards wisdom, but not the only step. Do with this list as you will. I hope you will know more about me by this list.

• The Bible
• The Little Train That Could
• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• The Complete Sherlock Holmes
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Batman (TV)
• Errol Flynn movies
• Gary Cooper movies
• Bambi
• Have Gun Will Travel
• Superman (TV)
• The Prisoner (TV)
• Poems of James Whitcomb Riley
• The Charge of the Light Brigade
• Annabelle Lee
• The short stories of Edgar Allan Poe
• James Cagney movies
• Keep on Smiling, Wet Willie
• Sitting on the Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding
• The Magnificent Seven
• I, Claudius
• Combat (When I was 7)
• Of Human Bondage
• The Three Musketeers (the Michael York movie and then the Dumas novels)
• Birth of Tragedy
• A History of the English-Speaking People
• British Philosophy from Bacon to Mill
• On Liberty, Mill
• The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
• Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
• The Clash, The Clash
• Desperado, The Eagles
• Wilson Pickett's Greatest Hits
• Muddy Waters Live
• Letters from Earth, Mark Twain
• Another Side of Bob Dylan
• Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
• Slaughterhouse -Five, Kurt Vonnegut
• The Maltese Falcon, Hammett
• The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
• A Family Affair, Rex Stout
• Some Buried Caesar, Rex Stout
• Gaudy Night, Dorothy L. Sayers
• The Stranger, Camus
• Hamlet (that was read when I was about 15)
• Alice Adams, Booth Tarkington
• Burr, Gore Vidal
• 1876, Gore Vidal
• The James Bond novels
• The Ipcress Files, Len Deighton
• The James Bond movies
• Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan
• The New York Dolls
• John Lee Hooker
• Bo Diddley's A Twister

[And that is where I will break off for now. Putting in the links has taken time that needs put to more practical matters. To be continued in My Playlist (Part One) 5/2010. sch 11/12/2025]