Tarek's New Look

The next Maureen Dowd?

I will be in Ann Arbor this weekend for my monthly preparation for jaw surgery. I'll also be having a CAT scan!

Also, I just finished this op-ed, which will be submitted to a service which distributed liberal things like this to rural newspapers. If they like it, I might get it in a paper or two, which would be great.

MEAGER BENEFITS OF INDIA DEAL AREN’T WORTH THE RISK

Listening to the Bush Administration’s claims about their new nuclear cooperation agreement with India, you might at first wonder why they didn’t propose it sooner. The White House presented the US-India nuclear deal not only as the keystone of a closer relationship between Washington and New Delhi, but also as a way to lower oil prices, meet India’s massive energy needs, cut greenhouse gas emissions, provide economic opportunities for the US, and strengthen the international non-proliferation framework. These remarkable claims, however, do not hold up to scrutiny.

The nuclear deal, first proposed last July, would change long-standing US laws and international guidelines by allowing exports of nuclear fuel and technology to India, which never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and chose instead to develop nuclear weapons using US and Canadian technology intended for peaceful purposes. Following India’s 1974 nuclear tests, the United States adopted laws forbidding the transfer of nuclear material to non-NPT states. The US-India deal would set a dangerous precedent by creating a single country exemption from international non-proliferation norms.

Asserting that the nuclear deal is essential for improving relations between the US and India seems far-fetched, especially considering that the joint Indo-US statement announcing the nuclear deal also provided a wealth of agricultural and economic initiatives that would create opportunities for close cooperation between India and the United States.

The Administration’s insistence that this deal could help slow rising oil prices also seems spurious, as only one percent of India’s electricity generation is fueled by oil. Even if this portion of the civilian power sector were completely replaced by nuclear reactors, there would be little change in Indian demand for oil. India’s oil-fueled electricity generation is also mostly in areas not connected to the grid and thus unable to benefit from new reactors. India consumes the vast majority of its oil in its transportation sector, and nuclear power will not alleviate this problem.

It is also been contended that this deal will reduce India’s consumption of dirty coal. Coal is India’s primary source of energy, and will remain so even under such a nuclear cooperation deal. Nuclear power will provide only a small fraction of Indian electricity, with India’s own estimates showing it rising to only six or seven percent of installed electrical capacity by 2030. The solution to India’s coal problem lies not in the expansion of nuclear power, but more likely in the development of clean coal technology.

The economic benefits of the deal for the United States are extremely uncertain. It is unclear whether US firms will be able to compete successfully for access to the Indian nuclear sector with more established French, British, and Russian companies. India will continue to grow rapidly and provide new investment opportunities for the United States regardless of whether the deal goes through.

Secretary Rice and others have been firm in their insistence that the deal will be a net gain for non-proliferation interests. India, they say, should be treated as other responsible nuclear powers. Many non-proliferation experts do not agree with the Administration’s logic. The precedent created by this deal could lead to far more dangerous deals between other countries. Pakistan, a known nuclear proliferator, has been seeking a similar deal with China, and Iran might use the deal as an excuse to gain assistance from Russia.

The Administration has said that exceptions for such dangerous nations would be unacceptable; but if the United States makes an exception for India, it will be difficult to tell other nuclear suppliers the difference between right and wrong and take the moral high ground in condemning other exemptions. Once two or three states are able to circumvent the NPT and reap the benefits allotted India, other countries will want to be treated just the same, and the non-proliferation framework could simply fall apart.

Congress is now considering legislation to change US laws to allow nuclear exports to India, but it hasn’t even seen the actual nuclear cooperation agreement, which is still being negotiated and will likely not be finalized for some time. Closer relations with India are surely desirable, but the nuclear deal is the wrong way to achieve this. The proliferation risks are too great, and the benefits too meager. Congress should take a closer look at what we stand to gain from this deal, and certainly not vote on a risky proposition it has yet to see.

Tristan Dreisbach is a research assistant at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington D.C. www.armscontrolcenter.org

A Reasonable Guide

I'm looking for four to five friends to collaborate with me on a music review blog. People interested in writing on a particular genre (jazz, hip-hop, metal, what-have-you) are especially encouraged to come forward.

Why should you do this?

Because it will be fun, we'll all find out about new/old/good/bad music and it will give the entire swim club community something to discuss and be proud of.

Volunteers?

Joshua

Cities where things happen: Zombie March

This is what people in Boston do with their time. It's really hip and cool, and if one doesn't do it, they should never complain about "never doing anything cool." So, if you live in a cool place, here is your blessing and your burden. There are "events" to busy us in our busy lives.

Sorry, I'm a little sick.

www.halfwaytohuman.com

Zombie March

A Yooper Writer for the "Paul and Tristan Generation"?

I had never heard of him before. His essay in Harper's about Jeff Daniel's Escanaba in da Moonlight captures the place dead on. He writes for other things like McSweeney's. Anyone else? Tristan? Probably.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512107

Should I pay this one out?

http://www.fundable.org/groupactions/bear2cz/view

I'm proud to be a Finn.

Finland sends Satan to Eurovision!




http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/24/world/europe/24finn.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Lock up your goats.

Goro's coming.

I dreamt of the Andes...

I got a grant to go to Bolivia to study the referendum on autonomy and the process leading up to the constituent assembly. I go in the middle of May and return at the end of July before I have surgery. This summer is going to be awesome (except for the surgery).

I'll be in Ann Arbor in a couple of weeks. See you soon

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12442765/site/newsweek/








Wow, Duke is on the cover of Newsweek! I knew this lacrosse rape was going to be big, I just knew it!

No reflection or analysis. Just a link.

Europe

The New York Times reports that La Pen's far-right National Front "has has emerged stronger than ever from the civil unrest that has plagued the country in the past six months...suggesting that the party could play a major role in the presidential election next year."

The article continues: "A nationwide outburst of vandalism and arson by the children of France's largely Muslim immigrants further played into Mr. Le Pen's hands: the National Front responded with a computer-generated video that showed Paris in flames beneath the banner, 'Immigration, explosion in the suburbs, Le Pen foretold it.'"

Europe is regressing.

"The term 'Muselmann' [Muslim] refers to those in the camps who had reached such a state of physical decrepitude and existential disregard that 'one hesitates to call them living: one hesitates to call their death death' (Levi cited in Agamben: 1999: 44). 'Muselmann' names the 'living corpses' that moved apparently inexorably toward death in the camps, beings who, through exhaustion and circumstance, had lost the capacity for living. They are the 'anonymous mass' that formed 'the backbone of the camps'.."

The Muslim, the Jew, and this haunting memory, this incalculable horror, in which both must find their mutual salvation.

Thanks...

Thank you for the great birthday!

Got eighteen months for espionage
Too much brandy for breakfast
And people tend to let you down
It's a swine.
Fantastic life

Dole penicillin to eastern ching plague-ridden
And one thing I have found
What you cast out will hit back
And a man will find he has to deny his
Fantastic life

Ours is not to look back
Ours is to continue the crack

Met a 54 year old dustbin man
And '48 he'd been in Jerusalem
Sold surplus oil to Arab fighters
For M-cocktails to burn Jewish terrorists
What a turn-up!
Fantastic life

Style's too easy to buy nowadays
And there's interference with the mail
And you just can't get out the words
Some people think if they had a job they'd be well
Now!
A fantastic lie!

The Siberian mushroom Santa
Was in fact Rasputin's brother
And he didst walk round Whitechapel
To further the religion of forgiven sin murder
Fantastic lie!

No lie, friend called David
He said he had a barney on Corporation Street
He said he told the policeman what he really thought
But knowing him I don't believe that crap
A Fantastic lie

And I just thought I'd tell you
And I just thought I'd tell you
About fantastic life

And I just thought I'd tell you
Some fantastic lies

And I just thought I'd tell you
And I just thought I'd tell you

I walked right (West) round Wakefield Jail
A fantastic life
And I just thought I'd tell you
And I just thought I'd tell you

Community, Communion, Communism

These three words constitute the essence of Marxism. If each one is thought through with the right amount of deliberation, these three words are Marxism itself, which has always been, for better or worse, a radical Christian politics. A politics that is now dead.

Graham's birthday

Wednesday April 19

Wheeler Park
6 pm
basketball
hot dogs/cake

Old Town
10:30 or whenever we get done at Wheeler Park
drinks

Faith

And the man of faith is the man of struggle and unrest.
From 'The Crooked in His Hand', Ian Singleton

It is for this reason, Ian.

Resurrection

Given the sad state of the first 2-3 hours of the most recent Vail party, I have a proposal. It was actually Stefan's idea. Hold on to your pants.

I propose a blowout, no-holds-barred, debaucherous and fun Vail party. I propose a Suppertime boys reunion (I think Mike Beauchamp will be back). I propose Fields of Industry and Bear Mountain Picnic. A cookout. I propose Tarek on the piano and Dax wearing a black makeup mask. I propose colored light bulbs, kegs of PBR, and Adam's "Dirty Coz" mixed drinks. I propose that all out-of-towners try to come for the weekend, even the east-coasters. I propose that everyone come over at 7 pm, not 1 am. I propose tears of joy and sorrow.
Is this going to be possible? Think last weekend of July or the first one in August. Ian? Robin? Paul? John? Tristan: when's your jaw going to be fixed? Tarek: let us know if you stay in Lebanon longer. Carlie: when do you move to Washington? Justin/Tricia; Pittsburgh? Everyone????

This is your HIGHEST PRIORITY. Many of us are about to embark on grad school or have already begun. Let's do this, one more time. Before it's too late. While it's still possible. Do it for each other. Do it for a man named Stephen T. Vail. Do it for the sake of giving it all up for old friends.

PS this is not the same as the Goro show. Unless you guys think it should be.

I'm Fucking You Tonight

Remember when I used to play between yo legs
You begged for me to stop because you know where it would head
Straight to yo mother's bed
At the Mariott, we be lucky if we find a spot
Next to yo sister, damn I really missed the
way she used to rub my back, when I hit that
Way she used to giggle when yo ass would wiggle

Beirut, Baltimore

It looks like I will be living in Baltimore this coming Fall. I'm bitterly excited. Johns Hopkins, Humanities Center. No Germany - again. German scholarships didn't come through. I think they wanted something new and flashy, contemporary - whereas I just wanted to study more Kant and Hegel and Hoelderlin, quietly and with time. I knew that I wouldn't be going to Germany because the proposals that I wrote weren't genuine, they were forced, like I was trying to mould what I wanted into what they want, and it just didn't work. I can't picture myself living in Baltimore too well - I've never been there, and I have trouble remembering where it's located even after looking it up.

Beirut is her same old self - confused and excited, schizophrenic. I go out a lot these days, and drink too much, sometimes. Yesterday, I went to the Goethe-Instiut and listened to this German trumpet player, Axel Doerner - he didn't play a single 'note' - everybody was of course very impressed with this avant-gardism, because he was 'beyond' and 'above' and 'transcendent' and 'you better not expect to hear a note because he is not into that'. I watched people in the audience very closely. Some of them were trying to hold back their laughter, which was sometimes in order, because he made sounds that were silly and playful, which I think called for laughter, but most people considered it a thoroughly 'serious' affair and so thought that laughing would be inappropriate. I wonder whether the Axel thought the sounds were funny. He made sounds that I have never heard before, very intriguing sounds with a trumpet no less. At one point it sounded like there was a percussionist lightly crashing a cymbal inside the trumpet, at different pitches and tones, so it sounded like multiple cymbals. But one thing I kept thinking throughout was this: when is he going to sing?

I'll try to post pictures of the countryside soon.

Potterotica

"Hermione..." her name was an intake of breath upon his lips, faint, and full of dark emotion she had only one answer to. She pulled him upwards and he rained kisses upon her face, ending at her mouth, which he plundered with a tenderness that would have shocked anyone else.
In fact, Rita Skeeter was more than shocked. After what seemed hours, but of course it could only have been a few moments, Professor Snape moved away from Hermione Granger and picked up his wand from where he'd left it on the bedside table. After uttering a cleansing spell, he flicked the tip of his wand towards Hermione and then, again, at himself...



You would not believe how much of this stuff there is. I was looking up rumors about Book 7 (like who RAB is), and I found a website proclaiming ridiculous things, like professor Sprout growing weed and Hagrid giving birth to a dragon, etc. That gave me the idea to do a search for "Hermione gets pregnant," and I stumbled upon THOUSANDS of pages of Potterotica!

Sun Done Set

In this aspect, Blogger is inferior to Myspace, which now has t-shirts that say "You looked better on Myspace." One thing I like about Myspace, though I don't have an account, is that you can indicate your mood and show what you were listening to during your blog entry. Today, I listened to this song, and I think it colors in my mood. Then I read on the internet that this NICK CAVE song (big fucking surprise) was on the PASSION OF CHRIST movie soundtrack. Though not included in the film, there is a soundtrack to the film about which the late pope said, "It is as it was." Bob Dylan's on there too, and Leonard Cohen. Here's the lyrics:

As so with that, I thought I'd take a final walk
The tide of public opinion had started to abate
The neighbours, bless them, had turned out to be all talk
I could see their frightened faces
peering at me through the gate

I was looking for an end to this, for some kind of closure
Time moved so rapidly, I had no hope of keeping track of it
I thought of my friends who had died of exposure
And I remembered other ones who had died from the lack of it

And in my best shoes I started falling forward down the street
I stopped at a church and jostled through the crowd
And love followed just behind me, panting at my feet
As the steeple tore the stomach from a lonely little cloud

Inside I sat, seeking the presence of a God
I searched through the pictures in a leather-bound book
I found a woolly lamb dozing in an issue of blood
And a gilled Jesus shivering on a fisherman's hook

Babe
It seems so long
Since you've been gone away
And I
Just got to say
That it grows darker with the day

Back on the street I saw a great big smiling sun
It was a Good day and an Evil day and all was bright and new
And it seemed to me that most destruction was being done
By those who could not choose between the two

Amateurs, dilettantes, hacks, cowboys, clones
The streets groan with little Caesars, Napoleons and cunts
With their building blocks and their tiny plastic phones
Counting on their fingers, with crumbs down their fronts

I passed by your garden, saw you with your flowers
The Magnolias, Camellias and Azaleas so sweet
And I stood there invisible in the panicking crowds
You looked so beautiful in the rising heat
I smell smoke, see little fires bursting on the lawns
People carry on regardless, listening to their hands
Great cracks appear in the pavement, the earth yawns
Bored and disgusted, to do us down

Babe
It seems so long
Since you've been gone
And I
Just got to say
That it grows darker with the day

These streets are frozen now. I come and go
Full of a longing for something I do not know
My father sits slumped in the deepening snow
As I search, in and out, above, about, below

Babe
It seems so long
Since you went away
And I
Just got to say
That it grows darker with the day

Lost Gospel shows Judas innocent of treachery

IS JUDAS Iscariot no longer to be cursed as the world's most reviled traitor? A new gospel, made public on Thursday in Washington by the National Geographic Society, says no.

...In a fascinating piece of documentary detection, comes the Gospel of Judas that says it was all a set-up - by Jesus! That Jesus asked Judas to identify him to the Romans, to liberate his spirit from his physical body (and complete his earthly mission of sacrificing himself for humanity, as the Son of God, which is the basis of Christian belief).

...After 1,700 years, the world gets to hear more words by Jesus, and that too, telling Judas, "…you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me", (meaning, rid Christ's spirit of its material cage).

The manuscript, says Nat Geo, was authenticated as a genuine work of Christian scripture on five fronts: contextual and paleographic evidence, radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and multispectral imaging.

Read the article here!

You Such a P.Y.T.

Where did you come from lady
and ooh won't you take me there
right away won't you baby
tenderoni you've got to be
spark my nature
sugar fly with me
don't you know
now is the perfect time
we can make it right
hit the city lights
then tonight ease the lovin pain
let me take you to the max
-Chorus-
I wanna love you (P.Y.T.)
pretty young thing
you need some lovin (T.L.C)
and I'll take you there
I wanna love you) (P.Y.T.)
Pretty young thing
You need some lovin' ((T.L.C.)
Tender lovin' care
I'll take you there
-background group-
anywhere you wanna go
-2nd verse-
nothin can stop this burnin'
desire to be with you
gotta get to you baby
won't you come,it's emergency
cool my fire yearnin'
honey, come set me free

Don't you know now is the perfect time
we can dim the lights
just to make it right in the night
hit the lovin' spot
I'll give you all I've got
-Chorus-
-breakdown-
Pretty young things
repeat after me
(Michael) I said na na na
(PYT's)na na na
(Michael) I said na na na na
(PYT's) na na na na
-- 2 times --
(Michael) I wanna take you there
(repeat chorus/fade out)

The Blogosphere is Continuously Expanding

Apparently Robin Bravender has entered our blogosphere. Post something, Robin! Once you start you'll be hooked. Or are you too scared to post? Is that it? Huh?

She's crafty!

Well, she may have won this round - somehow Joe Biden and John Kerry switched over to the dark side and say they are probably going to support the nuclear deal with India (which I HATE and am currently trying to bring down with every ounce of strength in my body), but Russ Feingold (who I have decided should be president) did ask a question that sounded a lot like one that I submitted to his office. She evaded it.


Photo Caption: "I won't rest until Tristan's pride is THIS small."

Tristan's brain vs. Condi's pain

Tristan, who won? You or Condi?

Flannery O'Connor

Architecture

I finally heard back from grad schools. This July I will leave my job doing web development and start an architecture program at SCI-Arc in L.A.

GORO myspace

A myspace site for GORO. Brian and I invented a record label, Placenta Records. I'll probably post new songs every week or so.

Chavez in Philadelphia

There is little doubt, however, that the spending has won Mr. Chávez stature and support abroad. For Argentina, the debt purchases helped President Néstor Kirchner, Venezuela's left-leaning ally, to pay off that country's $9.8 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund, ending Argentina's stormy relationship with the group.

In Cuba, Venezuela has supplied nearly 100,000 barrels of cut-rate oil per day — a deal Cuba repays with doctors and other services — making Mr. Chávez a benefactor on a par with the Soviet Union, which once bankrolled Castro's economy.

In the Bronx this past winter, Citgo, a subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, provided heating fuel at a 40 percent discount to some 8,000 low-income residents of 75 apartment buildings.

Even in Philadelphia, where thousands of households are benefiting from a program by Citgo to provide heating oil at a significant discount, people were won over, despite Mr. Chávez's antagonism toward Mr. Bush.

"All I can say is thank God for him for being able to help me and some others get some oil," said Geraldine Shields, a homeowner who received 200 gallons of free oil in January and will be able to buy fuel at a 40 percent discount. "It's time somebody starting thinking of the little guy."

New York Times, April 4.

Grand Raggidy Roller Girls!

On Saturday Josh and I drove to Grand Rapids to cheer for our good friend Nancy Rey-Gun as she skated in her first ever ROLLER-DERBY bout. It was pretty awesome! The league has not yet posted pictures on their web site, but once they do, I will post a link. If anyone is interested in attending the next bout (May 6th) let us know- we can car-pool.

Graham Update

Everybody,

Thanks so much for the sound advice on my last post. I really appreciate it. For the record, I have nothing against Norway. For example, I've wanted to learn about the Death Metal scene there for a long time (Joel, can you help with that?).

I have news to add/complicate my situation. I got into Columbia University in NYC. The program at Columbia is a lot better than Northwestern, and I've hoped/dreamed of going there for about three years.

There are significant problems. For one, after my post, I eventually convinced myself that I didn't need to go to grad school. I had also concluded a few months ago that New York was too much for me - too pricey, too busy, too noisy, etc. Also, Columbia is even more expensive than Northwestern, and they give even less financial aid.

I'll keep ya'll posted on things. Thanks so very much for helping me out during this stressful stuff. It's good to have support for difficult decisions, and it's nice that this blog can be used for that kind of thing.

-Graham

Items that stay in my graduate student mailbox:

1. Red Bic Pen
2. Unopened invitation to a conference on Public Choice
3. Plastic fork with dried spaghetti sauce
4. Graded statistics homework

Happy B-Day Adam

"He's Dangerous"

"He's Dirty"

Wisse das Bild

Mag auch die Spieglung im Teich
oft uns verschwimmen:
Wisse das Bild

Though the image upon the pool
often grows dim:
Know and be still

Rilke
Sonnets to Orpheus, Sonnet IX

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Hobbesian Free-For-All

Well, that was the kind of thing that causes riots, so drive-bys are probably a fortuitous development, right?

Dear students,
I write to inform you of a rumor I've just learned. I don't have a wayof validating the credibility of the rumor as it came to us third handfrom the Durham Police to various members of the Duke community. Whatwe've heard is threats of "drive by shooting" of the lacrosse house inthe Trinity Park area. As of the time I write this (approximately 9pm),we are aware of a gang-related shooting that took place this afternoonon Sedgefield Street in Walltown (several blocks from Trinity Park). Weare assured by Durham Police that this is not related to Duke in anyway. We also have a report that passengers in a car yelled at Dukestudents in houses on Buchanen Street.I share this information with great discomfort. I neither want to createany sense of hysteria for the Duke and Trinity Park communities norwithhold the existence of this information. We've spoken with several ofthe students who live in those houses and many have chosen to stayelsewhere tonight.Duke and Durham Police have substantially increased patrol coverage ofthe area including Trinity Park, Ninth Street and East Campus. Thatcoverage will remain in place for as long as necessary. I would suggestthat until we have information to discredit or validate this rumor, weall take appropriate precautions.Unfortunately, tensions are very high right now and may not abate forawhile. I would anticipate further rumors and conflicting informationand we'll do our very best to keep you informed. Most important will beto care for each other as we all struggle with these challenges. We havework to do to restore confidence in our community and I have absolutebelief that we can and will.Please contact Duke Police *anytime* if you feel threatened or haveinformation related to any unsafe situations. Call 911 or 684-2444 forimmediate support.Larry MonetaVice President for Student Affairs


What insights do Dook undergrads have about this? From the main campus chatter page, http://dukeobsrvr.livejournal.com/ :

"you think public opinion on campus is really so predominantly anti-pathologically lying stripper, or is it just here? "

"is central safe? and did you just pull that from godfather? Okay, call me racist, but I think the big difference between black and white people is that black people are crazy about scarface, to the point of running around wearing toga-sized scarface "t-shirts," whereas we white folks venerate the vastly superior godfather/godfather II (and those of us with any kind of taste hate godfather III). Okay, so not only do we have better taste in movies, but there's a huge difference between the values portrayed in the 2; tony montana is just some coked-out moron who wastes his money on drugs and fucks everything up, and michael on the other hand is a hard-nosed, shoot his own brother, extremely intelligent businessman. And that just says it all. That, and the fact that black people don't grow real hair."