Some more thinking...

Ok I have to say that there is anger over Obama being on a late night show and over him filling out a basketball scorecard is probably the most amusing thing I can think of. Is that the best they can do? These were things that didn´t take very long and are a normal part of someone´s life. Do they expect him not to use the toilet, not eat, and never ever think about anything fun? Stiff uptight white guys.

Bored and Amused

I am bored and amused with the republican critique of Obama appearing on Leno´s show. They are claiming it demeaned the office of president etc. The truth is they weren´t clever enough to come up with it in the first place. All the same though the joke about the Special Olympics wasn´t so funny, though I can guarantee you everyone makes these kinds of jokes in private. So what does demean an office of the president. Secrecy and Torture, two things the republican party stands for, oh yeah and the general promotion of greed as an avenue to freedom.

Looking for inspiration

I am looking for inspiration to keep doing thesis work. Don´t misunderstand me, I really like my topic, my place of study, everything. Its just hard to keep a continual focus. Maybe the problem is that if I put in too much effort I might get too much out of it. Well that is actually a horrible thought now isn´t it? I should be striving to be ahead of the pack and do something that stretches itself far from mediocrity and out into the ranges of creativity and the amazing. Pardon me waxing poetic on my own skills. I am actually wasting time in between going to the library.

Building tanks

Today I read that Russia is talking about a massive arms buildup. Or perhaps the way they put it was better; arms modernisation. The firt thought that came to mind as I sat musing about this was why they want to modernise and why they had to make it some kind of announcement? Then my thoughts next took me to that film Operation Canadian Bacon, where Alan Alda as the American president realises that with the cold war over and the economy in a slump, the only kind of solution is to start an arms race. Thats where the Russians are. They have no idea what else to do. So the best thing would be to invest in some kind of militaristic and nationalist pride. This has of course always lead to good things in the past so why wouldn´t it now? All in all a rather cliche thing for the Russians to do. I just thought they had it in them to be more creative.

Spring are you upon us?

Today I had to ride the subway and visit two libraries. One library to pick up research material for my ongoing thesis and the second one to pick up another book by Gunther Grass which I foresee finishing by Friday of next week. The tourists were out in force today with their badly folded maps and their wide eyed stares. The Hertha Berlin fans were out with their flags and scarves as the big game approached for the early afternoon (I am happy to report they held off aspirin-owned Leverkusen). That makes Hertha the Bundesliga leaders which is pretty much unheard of in modern times.

There was also a massive protest that started less than a block from my house. The police were everywhere and it seems that everything went off without a hitch. I followed the whole thing to Gorlitzer Bhf before deciding that I didn't want to stay out watching them march. They were protesting about gentrification and higher rent prices while the economy is stagnating. It was rather disappointing to see the police filming the protesters so they knew who had been there. Its nice to know they are probably running files on the most common protest marchers in Berlin. Paranoia!

The Yellow Journalism trail...

I like to read newspapers, listen news radio (mostly bbc), and read internet based news. I have a wide variety of sources that I turn to. When I want to know whats going on in the US I either read CNN or BBC. Perhaps I will turn to Der Spiegel if the item is big enough. When I want to read European news, I stick with The Guardian, BBC, Spiegel, and Dagens Nyheter. When I want to read sports news I go with a wide variety that is not worth listing. In Sweden we have two sensationalist newspapers that while often wrong, still provide great sports coverage even sometimes before the more reliable sources do. It struck me after watching clips from Fox News today that this is a cable news station that is essentially a sensationalist source. Their talk shows (Hannity and Colmes, O´Reilly) are essentially made up of sensationalist minded news individuals with massive egos who don´t have anyone standing there correcting them. When they do, they don´t accept the criticism. Fox News is yellow journalism at its best. If I was to lift my glass in honor of them this is what I would say:

I propose a toast to Fox News, for its distortions, its falsehoods, and its obvious bias. As a news station that fills our airwaves with things that can´t even be called news or continues its lying (I mean them not correcting Gingrich), they stand as a true example of hate, ignorance, and a complete lack on interest in doing good journalism. Here is to you all the journalists who don´t check your sources and don´t even bother trying to be accurate, it seems you are safe inside those republican walls.

In defense of RL

I can't believe I am writing this. I am going to defend Rush Limbaugh, but only for a short second. Ok, now out with it; I don't think there was anything wrong with what he said about wanting the president to fail. I think almost everyone has those kinds of thoughts at various times (though even with Bush I can´t remember ever formulating my distaste for him quite like that). Enough of the defense, because that is about all there is.

Rush Limbaugh reminds me of a whale. He is big and imposing and possibly dangerous if you find yourself in the water in his vicinity. His vicinity is the radio. On the radio he tells us daily about how much he dislikes democrats and how much the republicans are doing for the country. He doesn´t like african americans very much if at all; all you have to do to understand this is to read his books (I have read both). There is no point in making any comments here about his personal life. Even if they weren´t as disastrous as they are, they only sidetrack us from the real issue: his hate for anyone and anything different than himself. He doesn't like women very much either: he refers to feminists as feminazis and has even gone on to make the claim that ugly women invented this notion to somehow help themselves get into society. I consider myself a feminist (if you want to have this debate Mr. Limbaugh make sure you know what feminism is).

Like his other fellow master of hate and ignorance (and yes I will say it stupidity) Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh is a college drop-out. At least the other member of this conservo-biased media triumvirate is college educated and at least on paper intelligent (I mean O'Reilly of course). In the end I would hope these fools continue to use their hate and ignorance the way they do. I have this image of their hateful words building up a weight that will pull them very far down on the scales of history. We will remember them as they are: arrogant, angry, and out of touch with any form of reality.

BBC

I was reading Justin Webb´s blog today on BBC.co.uk and he made a good point about Republican resistance to any of the Democrat ideas that are being put forward at the moment. The idea is that if any of the Democrat policies actually work, then the Republicans have a lot more to lose at the moment. This will be especially the case considering that their policies have been tantamount to a joke for the last eight years.

Today I am going to Cologne for a funeral. So I don´t know if there will be any updates to this blog until around thursday or so. I am hoping to see the watchmen as well as the Man U vs. Inter Champions League second leg.

Its a...

Slow day today and that could have something to do with going to bed at four in the morning. It all started at a birthday party and then we decided to keep things going around two in the morning by trying out some of the new local bars in our neighborhood. Well we weren´t disappointed. We went o Mama´s and it turns out that is the new busy weekend spot in ReuterKiez (our neighborhood). So today I managed to finish the collection of stories by Thomas Mann that I have been reading and started Jeffrey Eugenide´s Middlesex which I am expecting a lot from, given his quality of work with the Virgin Suicides. Oh yeah it wasn´t all laziness here as I managed to bake a pizza for a late lunch and now am going to do a bit of writing as well as some thesis work. Tomorrow we have to go to Cologne for a few days.

I have this little feeling...

That my thesis is starting to come together a bit. I had an interview with a local community development agency on Thursday and since then I have been feeling good about this whole thing. There is just so much more that still needs to be done. I have gotten to the point where I think of myself as continually at work. If I take a break and eat something or go out and do something else, then it is just a break from work. That will be the nice part about graduating again; the ability to disconnect work and play (don´t get me wrong though I firmly believe that work should also be play but it can´t always be that nice).

Today is Saturday and that means football. All my teams are going to lose today. I know I should be a bit more positive but having been that way for the last three weeks, I am now starting to realize that I just have to assume the worst and that that way I can enjoy when they actually do something good. Just don´t count on it...

Socialism: the joke is on you!

I have been listening to some of the clips where the right wingers are whinning about the idea of universal health care and calling it socialism and doing the same thing when it comes to other ideas coming out of the White House. I have this question for them: are they aware that they lost the election? When a majority votes one party out of office, it means that they are tired of their policies and ideas and if we take this line of reasoning one step further we could even argue that they are saying that the policies were a failure.

Now coming back to socialism. There is no socialist government in the USA, nor will there ever be. The right wingers harping on and on about this subject are merely replaying old propaganda that never really held any meaning. They also love to refer to socialist Europe. Can someone tell me where socialist Europe is? I don´t know, maybe we could say Spain but they don´t have a socialist system so I guess that is out.

The American propaganda voices need this notion of socialism being a threat to our everyday lives to remain somehow relevant in this day and age. I only wish they knew what they were talking about.

Nationalist moment of the day...

Did you known that before WWII and even a bit into the actual conflict the correct way to salute the American flag was identical to the Nazi sieg heil. I love that these small things that aren't thought about very often have such interesting histories. My suggestion: ban the pledge of allegiance and let the dictators of the world sell these kinds of pledges. If what you are selling is that great then you don't need a bunch of children swearing oaths to something they don't even understand. Now imagine if something like this was implemented in Sweden or Germany today, it would immediately be interpreted as a dangerous and slippery slope back toward nationalism.

Republican Prancing

The wild horses are out on the fields kicking up the soils of the great plains and generally revelling in their feeling of freedom. But this vision is not true because there are barbed wire fences stretching across all those spaces that were once open and free. We could take this same approach to the recent Republican meeting; its a place of ideals and visions. Its also a place of whinning and complaining. The thing I find most interesting about it is that they still aren´t anywhere near bringing something new and fresh to the table. They are intent on serving up the same dishes, dirty and crusted with leftovers left standing out too long. They want to lower taxes for rich people and award them for treating their employees as garbage and this will somehow stimulate the economy. They are against big government although they like to spend as much as possible when they are in charge as well. Basically they are a bunch of lyin' snakes.

Thomas Mann

I have been reading my second Thomas Mann book Death in Venice which is really a novella and in my case it was put together with several other of his short stories. The thread that I find unifying throughout his work so far is that I don´t find any strong female characters. I find them to be mostly in supporting roles or even used to portray women in general in a light that seems to me to be very shallow and not logical. I would take this to be a case where the author is possibly an ego-centric male who sees the women that he incorporates into his books as being only a way of showing the male rationality while the female mind is inherently anti-rational and petty. Maybe its just my interpretation but I am wondering if anyone else has seen this?

Case of the Mondays

Its monday again and it seems that so far I have no motivation to work on my thesis. This isn´t the best of all ways to start the week, but on the other hand it could have been worse. I did manage to wake myself up at seven and read for about forty minutes from Death in Venice by Thomas Mann so all in all the morning has not been entirely wasted. I find myself thinking that if I could only be more productive and stay focused longer, that I would get a lot more things done around here. The chain of logic that follows from this thought process is also that I would feel better if I got more things done. Seems to me that this is a pretty smart way of thinking. Now its just about translating thought into action. My first idea was to write this post as a way of getting things rolling or sharpening the knife. Next step.... THESIS!

Part time job?

I know what I would like to do for a year now. I would like to teach a university course comparing Soviet, Nazi, and Allied propaganda films. The idea for the course would be to sift through the media material (films) to look for the common threads that are there in every piece of propaganda. If any universities are interested let me know. Book rights anyone?

Gilbert and Sullivan or the Comic Opera

I am going to lay the blame at Clara´s feet for this one. She got in the mood for listening to the Brecht´s The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) so I did the dirty work (got on my bike, went to the library, and checked it out for her on my free student account). While this work may seem remote and unknown, if you know The Doors song Whiskey Bar, then you are familiar with it.

Next thing you know I am suddenly in the mood for more of the same. However I didn´t know where to start. So I came back to something I had some knowledge about; the comic opera´s of Gilbert and Sullivan. Whether you know it or not you are probably familiar with their work as they are often seen in popular movies and such. Right now I am listening to the Pirates of Penzance and last week it was H.M.S. Pinafore. The humour is good and the music is fantastic. Next on the list is the Mikado.

What goes to Switzerland...

I think its amazing that the world has put up with these small tax havens for so long. Its really perfectly sad. Whenever we listened to Republicans talk about tax cuts and why it would be good to give more money to people who already had significant amounts of it, these recipients of tax cuts went and hid their money in these wonderful little countries whose banks and governments sealed their lips. Now it seems that this dirty little system could be under threat. The Swiss are upset that the US is putting them under some pressure to explain why they have been helping its citizen´s hide money that should have been taxed and gone back to the US government (think of all the infrastructure and health issues this money could have been spent on). Don´t get me wrong here I am not saying rich democrats haven´t done the same, just that its time to stop allowing little nations to hold the money.

Down with the Tax Haven culture!

Pirate Bay trial live

If you want and have a knowledge of Swedish, then you can use the svt.se web to listen to the Pirate Bay trial live. The prosecutor´s voice is so annoying it could make you cry and break down and confess to anything. As I sit here listening I am clinging to the hope that they actually pull of a win in this trial. We can go back to the notion of copyrights and all this and I still find myself wondering why a record label (a business) is able to own a song. More interestingly I wish we could confiscate the ipods of several famous musicians and determine where they got their music from. I am sure they are all perfect little angels.

Honestly, while I can´t say that downloading music is legal, I can on the other hand say that the model of selling music that the labels have stuck to is so out of date and inflated that its sad they have to resort to this kind of tactic to try to maintain their cultural hegemony. One might say the king is sitting loosely on the throne.

Open Letter to Rolf Anders

Rolf,

This week I have seen more of you then I have before. We sat in your office and at your dinner table looking at the photos you collected through the years. The thing that strikes me the most about these random moments captured by lens is two-fold: the smiles and the way that no matter what time period the photo is from you were always on a journey. Some were black and white, others full of color, and some slowly fading proving that even time can take these moments away. Some men live lives where they shelter themselves in a community and never venture far away from it. Others live their lives like that of Odysseus; always at sea looking for home and adventure. Looking at these pictures is seems you found that passage somewhere in between. I will never forget that moment just weeks ago when your daughter and I came to see you in the hospital and that even though you were in pain you still looked up at me and summoning all your strength you managed in English and with something of a smile "Nice to see you." You were a fighter, I don´t use that term lightly as it is laden with cliches and other images that don´t tell the real story behind everything you went through. I saw you again a few days after you closed your eyes for the last time. While I cannot say that you looked as handsome as you had the first time we met; just after Christmas at Adenauer Airport (I was nervous and I am sure you were as well), I can say that as I sat there I could see that the suffering was over. At the memorial ceremony there were over a hundred present and I sat there thinking to myself how strange it is that these people lighting candles; that they were able to know you and that I was now sentenced to only see you and them captured on those photos we found in your drawers and albums. They cried because they knew you and knew what they had lost when they had lost you; a friendship and more importantly a friend. I cried because I had lost a person who I would never have a chance to befriend. I don´t think you ever expected to create the chain of events that brought me to where I am now. I will remember you and these pictures will tell stories that even your grandkids will laugh and smile about.

Your soon to be son-in-law,

Aron