Attack In Cairo

Yet another horrendous sexual attack on a Western woman by a crazed crowd in Cairo. I love Cairo, I've brought my children to Cairo in calmer times, and I'm generally speaking not the type to order my children not to do something they have good reason to want to do. But I swear, if one of my daughters ever says she's off to visit Egypt, I'll lay myself down in front the plane. Here's the latest horror story, from a very brave young woman...

-- Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic

Blonde women seem to have more trouble in Cairo. It's not an everyday kind of thing, but one remembers Lara Logan, the mass attack on the lovely newscaster. Here is a report of another similar attack.

( Read more... )

Attack In Cairo

Yet another horrendous sexual attack on a Western woman by a crazed crowd in Cairo. I love Cairo, I've brought my children to Cairo in calmer times, and I'm generally speaking not the type to order my children not to do something they have good reason to want to do. But I swear, if one of my daughters ever says she's off to visit Egypt, I'll lay myself down in front the plane. Here's the latest horror story, from a very brave young woman...

-- Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic

Blonde women seem to have more trouble in Cairo. It's not an everyday kind of thing, but one remembers Lara Logan, the mass attack on the lovely newscaster. Here is a report of another similar attack.

( Read more... )

The Problem for Obama and the Democrats

[W]hy did the right do so much better a job than Obama and company of seizing the moment? We’ve already seen part of the answer: Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, were too close to Wall Street to deal effectively with a crisis that Wall Street had created. [Thomas] Frank also makes an important point: in the recent political climate, ignorance really has been strength. You might think that the hermetic intellectual universe the right has created for itself, a kind of alternative reality walled off from any evidence that might contradict faith in the wonders of free markets and the evils of government intervention, would be a liability for the GOP. And it does indeed wreak havoc with actual policymaking. In political terms, however, it has given Republicans unity and certainty where Democrats have been weak and divided.

-- Paul Krugman and Robin Wells

The Problem for Obama and the Democrats

[W]hy did the right do so much better a job than Obama and company of seizing the moment? We’ve already seen part of the answer: Democrats in general, and Obama in particular, were too close to Wall Street to deal effectively with a crisis that Wall Street had created. [Thomas] Frank also makes an important point: in the recent political climate, ignorance really has been strength. You might think that the hermetic intellectual universe the right has created for itself, a kind of alternative reality walled off from any evidence that might contradict faith in the wonders of free markets and the evils of government intervention, would be a liability for the GOP. And it does indeed wreak havoc with actual policymaking. In political terms, however, it has given Republicans unity and certainty where Democrats have been weak and divided.

-- Paul Krugman and Robin Wells

Hamlet (3,2) You Are Merry, My Lord

Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others

Much pomp and circumstance. Much is being made of Hamlet’s little play. There is the excitement of social festivity and the air practically crackles with electricity. The hope had been that the prince may be coming back to himself and out of his unknowing woe. It is also a critical scene for the real play:

All the preparation for an act and a half leads to this moment: when the great sound, and the panoply, bring the two mighty opposites face to face, for the first time (except perhaps in passing) since act one, scene two [Marvin Rosenberg].

KING CLAUDIUS

How fares our cousin Hamlet?

Hamlet is in antic mood, even seeming manic. He is up and primed. He immediately twists Claudius’s courteous greeting by punning on ‘fares’:

HAMLET

Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat
the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.

KING CLAUDIUS

I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
are not mine.

HAMLET

No, nor mine now.

[To POLONIUS]
My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?

LORD POLONIUS

That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.

HAMLET

What did you enact?

LORD POLONIUS

I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
Capitol; Brutus killed me.

HAMLET

It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf
there. Be the players ready?

ROSENCRANTZ

Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.

Now Gertrude will reach out to Hamlet:

Gertrude’s invitation to Hamlet suggests a real affection, something more than conventional display for the court’s sake. [...]

Only we as Gertrude can know how much we care for this unruly son - who has begun the evening by offending Claudius and the old man, and now by indirection, us. Do we care about him? Love him? Will we try to calm him? Appease his madness? Try to neutralize his present belligerence? Prevent further unpleasantness between him and the new husband for whom we must show affection? Make peace between them? Show Hamlet love? Scold him? We have declared ourselves worried by his transformation, have attributed it to our own hasty marriage. What strange thing might he do now? We must enjoy - or seem to enjoy - this play he put on for us.

Through the whole of this long scene we-Gertrude will speak only twice more, briefly; we will endure insults that remind us of our guilt, sense the strange growing uneasiness of our husband, wonder and perhaps agonize at the irrational behavior of this son - almost entirely in silence. In silence we will have to experience and convey, moment by moment, our own progressive anxiety that will contribute to increasing the tension of this scene, and propel us toward the climactic private confrontation in the next scene [in the bed chamber with Polonius behind the arras]. {Marvin Rosenberg}

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

HAMLET

No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.

LORD POLONIUS

[To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?

Polonius is still playing the fishmonger, and Hamlet will relate to Ophelia as though she were little more than a peasant whore.

HAMLET

Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

[Sitting down at OPHELIA's feet.]

OPHELIA

No, my lord.

HAMLET

I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

Do you think I meant CoUNTry matters?

OPHELIA

I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET

That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

OPHELIA

What is, my lord?

HAMLET

Nothing.

Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia so? Why does Shakespeare? If ever the poet deserved to be whipped, Theobald wrote, it was for this. Bradley was shocked by the “disgusting and insulting grossness” of Hamlet’s language. Dover Wilson thought Hamlet’s “savagery towards a gentle and inoffensive child,” treating her like a prostitute, was “inexcusable on the ordinary reading... irreconcilable with everything else we are told about him.” [Marvin Rosenberg]

Mr. Granville-Barker offers a considerate defense: Hamlet is merely holding up the mirror to Polonius and the King, showing everyone at court how Ophelia is being used as sexy bait. It is they who hold out Ophelia as so much juicy meat, and so he is treating her as she is offered, and as she allows herself to be offered. He is also using his bitter feelings to display his antic whims and somewhat disturbing behavior, giving himself more of a shield for other more pointed provocations that he will be offering up shortly, striking closer at the crown. For what he says next is still within earshot of the royal couple and the royal court for all to hear, and there will be more to come.

OPHELIA

You are merry, my lord.

HAMLET

Who, I?

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do
but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.

OPHELIA

Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

HAMLET

So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for
I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
a year.

Everyone has come to indulge Hamlet and see the show he has put together, and he has put on quite a show himself, slamming and shaming everybody from the King and Queen to Polonius and Ophelia. Fortunately, the trumpet sounds to break off this unrelenting assault by the prickly prince, and the play begins with the dumb show.

Hamlet (3,2) You Are Merry, My Lord

Danish march. A flourish. Enter KING CLAUDIUS, QUEEN GERTRUDE, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and others

Much pomp and circumstance. Much is being made of Hamlet’s little play. There is the excitement of social festivity and the air practically crackles with electricity. The hope had been that the prince may be coming back to himself and out of his unknowing woe. It is also a critical scene for the real play:

All the preparation for an act and a half leads to this moment: when the great sound, and the panoply, bring the two mighty opposites face to face, for the first time (except perhaps in passing) since act one, scene two [Marvin Rosenberg].

KING CLAUDIUS

How fares our cousin Hamlet?

Hamlet is in antic mood, even seeming manic. He is up and primed. He immediately twists Claudius’s courteous greeting by punning on ‘fares’:

HAMLET

Excellent, i' faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat
the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.

KING CLAUDIUS

I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words
are not mine.

HAMLET

No, nor mine now.

[To POLONIUS]
My lord, you played once i' the university, you say?

LORD POLONIUS

That did I, my lord; and was accounted a good actor.

HAMLET

What did you enact?

LORD POLONIUS

I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the
Capitol; Brutus killed me.

HAMLET

It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf
there. Be the players ready?

ROSENCRANTZ

Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.

Now Gertrude will reach out to Hamlet:

Gertrude’s invitation to Hamlet suggests a real affection, something more than conventional display for the court’s sake. [...]

Only we as Gertrude can know how much we care for this unruly son - who has begun the evening by offending Claudius and the old man, and now by indirection, us. Do we care about him? Love him? Will we try to calm him? Appease his madness? Try to neutralize his present belligerence? Prevent further unpleasantness between him and the new husband for whom we must show affection? Make peace between them? Show Hamlet love? Scold him? We have declared ourselves worried by his transformation, have attributed it to our own hasty marriage. What strange thing might he do now? We must enjoy - or seem to enjoy - this play he put on for us.

Through the whole of this long scene we-Gertrude will speak only twice more, briefly; we will endure insults that remind us of our guilt, sense the strange growing uneasiness of our husband, wonder and perhaps agonize at the irrational behavior of this son - almost entirely in silence. In silence we will have to experience and convey, moment by moment, our own progressive anxiety that will contribute to increasing the tension of this scene, and propel us toward the climactic private confrontation in the next scene [in the bed chamber with Polonius behind the arras]. {Marvin Rosenberg}

QUEEN GERTRUDE

Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.

HAMLET

No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.

LORD POLONIUS

[To KING CLAUDIUS] O, ho! do you mark that?

Polonius is still playing the fishmonger, and Hamlet will relate to Ophelia as though she were little more than a peasant whore.

HAMLET

Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

[Sitting down at OPHELIA's feet.]

OPHELIA

No, my lord.

HAMLET

I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

Do you think I meant CoUNTry matters?

OPHELIA

I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET

That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

OPHELIA

What is, my lord?

HAMLET

Nothing.

Why does Hamlet treat Ophelia so? Why does Shakespeare? If ever the poet deserved to be whipped, Theobald wrote, it was for this. Bradley was shocked by the “disgusting and insulting grossness” of Hamlet’s language. Dover Wilson thought Hamlet’s “savagery towards a gentle and inoffensive child,” treating her like a prostitute, was “inexcusable on the ordinary reading... irreconcilable with everything else we are told about him.” [Marvin Rosenberg]

Mr. Granville-Barker offers a considerate defense: Hamlet is merely holding up the mirror to Polonius and the King, showing everyone at court how Ophelia is being used as sexy bait. It is they who hold out Ophelia as so much juicy meat, and so he is treating her as she is offered, and as she allows herself to be offered. He is also using his bitter feelings to display his antic whims and somewhat disturbing behavior, giving himself more of a shield for other more pointed provocations that he will be offering up shortly, striking closer at the crown. For what he says next is still within earshot of the royal couple and the royal court for all to hear, and there will be more to come.

OPHELIA

You are merry, my lord.

HAMLET

Who, I?

OPHELIA

Ay, my lord.

HAMLET

O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do
but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my
mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.

OPHELIA

Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord.

HAMLET

So long? Nay then, let the devil wear black, for
I'll have a suit of sables. O heavens! die two
months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's
hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half
a year.

Everyone has come to indulge Hamlet and see the show he has put together, and he has put on quite a show himself, slamming and shaming everybody from the King and Queen to Polonius and Ophelia. Fortunately, the trumpet sounds to break off this unrelenting assault by the prickly prince, and the play begins with the dumb show.

Killing Salman Rushdie: The Game

Salman Rushdie was the target of a notorious fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic of Iran, 23 years ago. Now, the author of The Satanic Verses is the subject of an Iranian computer game aimed at spreading to the next generation the message about his "sin".

The Stressful Life of Salman Rushdie and Implementation of his Verdict is the title of the game being developed by the Islamic Association of Students, a government-sponsored organisation which announced this week it had completed initial phases of production.

News of the computer game came as Tehran on Tuesday played host to the country's second International Computer Games Expo. "The organisers considered the event as an opportunity to introduce Iranian culture, value and Islamic identity, and also a way to present Iranian products to international computer games designers and producers," the English-language state television channel, Press TV, reported on its website.

[...]

Little has been revealed about the game but its title suggests players will be asked to implement Khomeini's call for the killing of Rushdie.

-- Saeed Kamali Dehghan at The Guardian

Ah, so this is Iranian and Islamic identity! Very impressive. It actually makes the Catholic Church look progressive. Oh, God, if there is a god in heaven, your greatest adherents sure do make you look like a fucking controlling psycho.

Killing Salman Rushdie: The Game

Salman Rushdie was the target of a notorious fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic of Iran, 23 years ago. Now, the author of The Satanic Verses is the subject of an Iranian computer game aimed at spreading to the next generation the message about his "sin".

The Stressful Life of Salman Rushdie and Implementation of his Verdict is the title of the game being developed by the Islamic Association of Students, a government-sponsored organisation which announced this week it had completed initial phases of production.

News of the computer game came as Tehran on Tuesday played host to the country's second International Computer Games Expo. "The organisers considered the event as an opportunity to introduce Iranian culture, value and Islamic identity, and also a way to present Iranian products to international computer games designers and producers," the English-language state television channel, Press TV, reported on its website.

[...]

Little has been revealed about the game but its title suggests players will be asked to implement Khomeini's call for the killing of Rushdie.

-- Saeed Kamali Dehghan at The Guardian

Ah, so this is Iranian and Islamic identity! Very impressive. It actually makes the Catholic Church look progressive. Oh, God, if there is a god in heaven, your greatest adherents sure do make you look like a fucking controlling psycho.