Marian's Blog

TV Now: Book TV, CSPAN 2- "The New American Militarism," Andrew Bacevich

I've got to read this book. This guy is talking about a "technology-hyped mood" toward war.

Some Balkan American guy named Andrew Bacevich (bah cheh vitch) is on C-Span 2's Book TV at this moment, telling "too much truth." [Now they're discussing what he said.] His new book is, The New American Militarism. He's using words & phrases like, the old view of war was "barbarism, brutality, ugliness, and waste" ... while today we have hi-tech warfare - "smart weapons, new vision of war new lexicon" - war was becoming "surgical, frictionless post-modern abstract, virtual," ... 'cost-effective', 'humane', even 'thrilling' ...we're in the midst of a "technology-hyped mood" toward war.

Today's Favorite Science headlines

My favourite headlines today: Obesity in middle age linked with dementia. If I'd written that I'd have called it 'Couch potato minds'. (A lot of us better watch out...)

... and after its maiden voyage yesterday 'en France' supposedly there's an "Airbus 380 for sale on Ebay," and the "Ivory-billed woodpecker flies back from the dead." In the US the last IBW was spotted in Louisiana in about 1946. Welcome back!

Rights of Children: Even in Pinellas & Hillsborough counties, Florida

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Preamble to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child: ... the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection

Article 37 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child: ... States Parties shall ensure that: No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

GOP ethics: May reverse Rule Changed in Congress to save Tom Delay

Air Force One 'Jet setting' - Bush schmoozes fellow powerful Republican guy Tom DeLay. (Gerald Herbert photo, Associated Press.)

LS Blogs, What's up with the incorrect listing??

Checked a listing for us at LS Blogs ... and noticed the browser image they're showing for Marian's Blog is not from here; it does not match any design we've ever used. In fact it reads: "FREEWAY JAM." Every other blog listed on a related page seemed to match the image shown beside it. Then we couldn't find contact info on the website to reach a live human being. Thanks for the listing but... what's up with the incorrect info, LS Blogs?

US Soldiers Found 'Not Guilty' of Killing Rescuer Nicola Calipari in Iraq; Mi Dispiace, Italia

So much for the 'coalition of the willing'. Veramente mi dispiace, Italia. I am truly sorry, and send my apology as an American to the family of Nicola Calipari, to my other home, Italia, and to the citizens of Iraq. In early March U.S. soldiers shot and killed an unarmed Italian government agent - 50 year old Nicola Calipari - who moments earlier successfully freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena.

(Nicola Calipari, shot dead by US 'unfriendly fire')

Sgrena is a veteran reporter for Italian newspaper, IL Manifesto. (Click here for Giuliana Sgrena's articles on Iraq.) Mr. Calipari and his colleagues effectuated Sgrena's rescue without a shootout at the OK Corral ... a technique Americans would do well to learn.

Sgrena's captors released her without injury, but she was wounded in the deadly U.S. attack. How can our government be so oblivious? And Italy is an ally of the Bush war on/in Iraq - in spite of the Italian public's anti-war sentiments.

CNN - ROME, Italy -- Italian opposition parties have condemned as an insult a report that cleared U.S. soldiers of blame for the killing of an Italian agent in Iraq and urged the government to press for a fuller investigation.

"Nicola Calipari, 50, was killed on March 4 shortly after securing the release of hostage Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena. The newly freed journalist was wounded in the incident.

The agent's death strained relations between the United States and Italy, two stalwart allies in the Iraq war but the U.S. soldiers involved will face no disciplinary actions, the Pentagon official said Monday.

A U.S. Army official, briefing reporters in Washington on the preliminary results of the investigation, said on Monday the soldiers had followed their rules of engagement and should therefore face no charges of dereliction of duty. ..." continued HERE

Ben Greenberg: "Arresting children Under 12 in Florida" (United States of America)

Thanks to Ben Greenberg's Hungry Blues blog entry "Arresting children under 12 in Florida" we've learned there is a serious pattern and problem in Pinellas County, Florida. Pinellas is where (as seen in the video of what occurred) a little Black 5 year old Ja'eisha Scott was treated like a space alien and abandoned by her 2 white kindergarten teachers, then turned over by them to three (3) white police who handcuffed her and apparently later, off camera, put some type of shackles on her legs. This smacks of slavery and clearly is a violation of human rights.

Ben and his family discovered a multi-part St. Petersburg Times newspaper special report, "Under 12, Under Arrest" - published in December 2000 - over 4 years ago. Thanks, Ben.

I've borrowed the newpaper's chart, which Ben also has on his site. He notes that Pinellas and Hillsborough counties lead the state in arresting children under 11 years old.

Neo Nazis in America: "A Hundred Little Hitlers" by Elinor Langer

A bit of American political geography. Fairmount Park Elementary School (which called police to 'subdue'/detain/handcuff and shackle little 5 yr old Ja'eisha Scott) is located in St. Petersburg, Florida. That area is commonly referred to as the "Tampa-St. Pete" metropolitan area. Tampa is in Hillsborough County and St. Petersburg is in Pinellas County. This region seems to have major problems with racism and the absence of racial justice.

I've just read The subtle forces behind a racist killing (22 Sept 2003, St. Petersburg Times) ... Ellen Emry Heltzel's review of Elinor Langer's, A HUNDRED LITTLE HITLERS: The Death of a Black Man, the Trial of a White Racist, and the Rise of the Neo-Nazi Movement in America, about the 1988 skinhead murder of Mulugeta Seraw, who was Ethiopian. According to Heltzel, Langer's book spares almost no one, not even Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

Temporarily closing 'Comments'

After the brouhaha of some feedback on the Fairmount Park Elementary School/ kindergarten/handcuffs/shackles debacle, I've decided to close off comments for the time being... Thanks for understanding.

Afro German man finds family in Virginia; discovers genealogist is his cousin

There are times the universe is as elegant as it can be brutal.

The title of Kristin Davis' article in the Fredericksburg (Virginia) Freelance-Star newspaper reads, "German man finds out genealogist is a relative." I know of Char McCargo Bah, the genealogist who was helping Harald Stoelting research his family, when she discovered that he's her first cousin. A cousin of mine who knows Char sent me the article.

I know at least one other person, a woman in the Balkans - she's Afro Croatian - with a similar family history she's trying to find. I looked for her family info myself and if need be I'll look again. I really hope her search succeeds if it hasn't already. Here's a photo of Harald and his family - and the article is here: