Thursday, April 12, 2007

From Medieval Plunderers to Plunderers of Climate Science

Good Heavens. I posted the piece on medieval plunderers in Belgium to add a little color -- a lighter side, if you will -- to the Proving Ground's stellar, Pulitzer-caliber political reporting and analysis. It was meant to have its 15 minutes of fame and then slip quietly into the archives, to live out the rest of its days humbly and contentedly.

Little did I know that it would be the feature article for a week, causing our legions of readers to mistakenly believe this is a blog about Belgium, or Maximilian I.

Well, the article is not one to hog the stage, so it hereby passes the torch to the latest George Monbiot article, which picks apart the incredible lunacy and hypocrisy of climate skeptics thinking that they are the ones being censored.

The Real Climate Censorship - I'm not going to pull out any quotes. Read the whole thing.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

"When I am a medieval plunderer, I can do what I want"

I couldn't pass this up. The International Herald Tribune reports that some Belgians are going medieval.
During the week, Ivonne Janssens, 57, is a hospital cleaner. But come the weekend, she climbs the narrow steps of a three-story medieval tower and turns into a 14th-century duchess with a faux-emerald necklace, a linen headdress, a leather satchel full of fake gold coins, and a retinue of mercenaries to fend off invading French knights.

Her husband, Daniel Grandjean, a 50-year-old furniture maker with a pot belly and bushy beard, becomes an axe-wielding soldier-for-hire.

[snip]

Across this country of 10 million, a growing number of Belgians are trading in their jeans for suits of armor. They are rubbing stones together to make fire, eating their dinners out of cauldrons, re-enacting heroic battles and participating in mock hangings.

[snip]

For Pol Malfait, an affable 53-year-old postal clerk from Ghent, the Middle Ages is not just a historical era but a state of mind. Every week, he becomes De Nevelaar, a 14th-century Flemish soldier who fought for the king of England against the French crown during the Hundred Years War and then became a full-time plunderer. His wife, Jeanne, a 49-year-old secretary, becomes a peasant woman.

"When I am a medieval plunderer, I can do what I want and I love the freedom," he says, showing off the chain-metal outfit he puts on before setting out on fictional rampages.

"You can be in big trouble if both you and your partner aren't into being medieval,"
Yeah, I'll bet. I wouldn't want to be returning from grocery shopping, only to be waylaid by a sword-wielding marauder.

Other Belgians, of course, are suggesting not taking this too far.
Not everyone here has embraced the medieval trend. Eduard Van Ermen, a professor of medieval history at the University of Leuven - who confesses he once pretended to be Emperor Maximilian I - argues that Belgians who idealize the medieval period are underestimating its challenges. These, he says, include an average life span of 40 years, the Black Plague, potato famines, torture for minor transgressions and the constant threat of bloody wars.
Plague, Schmague. Long live Maximilian I!

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

What a difference a year makes

At the annual Radio and Television Correspondents' Dinner, President Bush opened with a clever joke:

“A year ago, my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my Vice President had shot someone. Ahhh, those were the good old days.” (Whitehouse)

How else have things changed over the course of a year:

March, 2006
Well, on 20 March 2006, President Bush spoke of the successes in Iraq that the media never covers. At his speech in Cleveland, Ohio he stated:

“Today I'd like to share a concrete example of progress in Iraq that most Americans do not see every day in their newspapers and on their television screens. I'm going to tell you the story of a northern Iraqi city called Tal Afar…See, if you're a resident of Tal Afar today, this is what you're going to see: You see your children going to school and playing safely in the streets…You see markets opening, and you hear the sound of construction equipment as buildings go up and homes are remade. In short, you see a city that is coming back to life.” (Whitehouse)

March, 2007
On March 28th, however, a truck bomb exploded in a Shiite neighborhood killing 83 people and wounding more than 185. The predominantly Shiite police force responded by systematically targeting Sunni homes. The police officers went “house to house in a Sunni neighborhood, dragged people into the street and shot them in the head.” All told, the retaliatory violence resulted in 70 people executed, 40 kidnapped and 30 wounded. Iraqi doctor, Salih Qaddaw, described the situation at his hospital:

“So many bloodied corpses were brought in on Tuesday night that the entry hall could not be kept clean,” he said. “If you would have a look inside the hospital yesterday, it would have looked as if it were painted red despite all our efforts to clean the entry. But the influx of casualties kept growing bigger.” (NYT)

If that was not enough to make your blood curdle (or after reading the entirety of Bush’s speech and visualizing the absolute horror Tel Afar citizens experience daily), more than 100 people were killed in Baghdad after a series of attacks, including two bombings at a busy street market (NYT). Absurdly, many conservatives and Iraqis consider this a positive step and a sign that the escalation is working because only 100 people, as opposed to 150 died on March 30.

Update: After writing this on Saturday March 31, Senator John McCain returned from Iraq touting the success of the escalation and the resulting increase in Baghdad security. Despite these proclamations, many more bombs exploded over the weekend (after the Tal Afar bombings, which were the deadliest of the war to this date), killing 50 and several US soldiers.

What struck me was the fact that McCain earlier last month said on CNN, “General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee.” Then, on the Bill Bennett readio program, he said that there “are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today.” However, when he toured the city, McCain traveled in a convoy of armored military vehicles and was accompanied by a large contingent of heavily armed soldiers. He wore body armor while they shopped and other precautions, described shortly, were taken. Obviously, the streets are not quite as safe as they appear. (NYT)

Adding to the idiocy, he and his travelling partners described the Shorja market as a safe place to peddle wares. Representative Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, went so far as to say the Shorja market was “like a normal outdoor market in Indiana.” In today's New York Times, several Iraqis said what I assume most Americans already believe: he was flat wrong. From the Times article:

“What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “The security procedures were abnormal!”

The delegation arrived at the market, which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees — the equivalent of an entire company — and attack helicopters circled overhead, a senior American military official in Baghdad said. The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans, witnesses said, and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests throughout their hourlong visit.

“They paralyzed the market when they came,” Mr. Faiyad said during an interview in his shop on Monday.

“This was only for the media.”He added, “This will not change anything.”

Making matters worse, at very the same market these men callously compared to an American market, at least 61 Iraqis were murdered and scores more wounded as the result of two vehicle bombs and a roadside bomb. More recently, “snipers hidden in Shorja’s bazaar have killed several people.” I have never been to a market, much less a mall where I feared for my life; and for these men to compare anything in Iraq to the US not only insults my intelligence, but also marginalizes the horrors the Iraqis have thus far endured. (NYT)

Monday, April 02, 2007

Special Election Coverage: The Madison Mayoral Race

When you go to the polls next week to decide who will run the City of Madison for another four years, be sure to choose the best man. This will pose a problem though as it has become quite clear in the past few months that Ray Allen and incumbent Dave Ceislewicz would likely both do a decent job with city governance.

As a nine year veteran of the Madison School Board and Executive on the Board for Madison Area Technical College, Allen's real experience and mettle will be strong pressed to deliver on his initiatives. Allen’s philosophy centers on poverty. He has promised a Johnson-esc War on Poverty if elected, correctly pointing out that many of the cities issues with crime, unemployment and poor education stem from poverty. He does want to expand vocational programs to increase success in job placement, focus on overhauling the Metro system rather than spend money on trolleys and try to curb high rise construction in order to keep affordable housing in the downtown area. But he has also called for questionable programs in the past like 10-10 which would add ten new police officers to the Madison force every year. Allen is a strong candidate with a clear mission: nip problems at the bud by fighting the poverty that causes them.

Mayor Dave has enjoyed much success during his term as Madison’s Mayor. The smoking ban, municipal pool and incentives for housing low income renters have all been turned into reality. His plans over the next four years include further exploring a trolley system for Madison, ear mark funds to explore solutions in downtown safety and continuing to work with business to keep Madison’s economy healthy. Cieslewicz boasts much popular support and his ability to spearhead long term initiatives like committing to the Kyoto Protocol at the city level, has proved to be politically energizing as cities across the country are now signing on to similar agendas. As a foreword looking candidate Cieslewicz has support in and outside of Madison. Honestly, it’s a tough call.

From Andrew G, The Proving Ground Senior Election Correspondent.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Poor Ronald McDonald

Do you remember when McDonald's spokesman Ronald McDonald underwent a makeover and started promoting exercise and healthy living (ads with Ronald playing soccer, eating salad, skateboarding, etc.)? Well, those days are long gone. Apparently, Ronald could not ween himself from Big Macs and Double Quarter Pound meals.