Switched On!
It's been a good month, personally. In the realm of the written word, Lorrie Moore passsed through town which was completely mind-blowing..

Then Stereolab decides to tour, absent Mary Hansen who was hit by a car while riding her bicycle in London about a year and half ago.

Their show tonight was completely mind-blowing, even sans Mary, who was the most friendly, out-going member of the group. They played a song that was quintessentially Mary, "Nihilist Assault Group." One of the many wonderful things about Stereolab is their creative song titles, like "Exploding Head Movie" and "International Coloring Contest."

Distinction with a difference
Reason republished a piece Jonathan Rauch wrote for the National Journal about how "Like it or not, Israel's war with Hamas is America's, too."

I'm not an expert on the Middle East, but my impression is it isn't our war even if we give Israel a ton in foreign aid and Bush gives Sharon a free hand.

Says Rauch, "... America's terror war and Israel's are not separable, however much we might wish they were."

And later he contradicts himself, "Although Hamas has concentrated on Israeli interests while Al Qaeda concentrated on American ones, even that gap is narrowing—inevitably, now that America is making a priority of bringing secular democracy to the Middle East." Secular democracy? Afghanistan, a guide here, has Islam written into its new constitution and Iraq's will certainly have references to Islam as well, given Ayattolah Ali Sistani's pull and the majority Shia population.

Ask yourself which American interests Al Qaeda is concentrating on and why. Compare the experience of the Palestinians, who are fighting the Israelis over contested land, as described by a Middle East expert:

During the first intifada, in the late 1980s, the Palestinians denied themselves the recourse to arms, mounted a civil resistance, produced voices like Hanan Ashrawi and greatly stirred world opinion. For this they were offered some noncontiguous enclaves within an Israeli-controlled and Israeli-settled condominium. Better than nothing, you might say. But it's the very deal the Israeli settlers reject in their own case, and they do not even live in Israel "proper." (They just have the support of the armed forces of Israel "proper.") So now things are not so nice and many Palestinians have turned violent and even--whatever next?--religious and fanatical. Naughty, naughty. No self-determination for you. And this from those who achieved statehood not by making nice but as a consequence of some very ruthless behavior indeed.

The Bad Old Days
Gordon Wood, the historian Will Hunting name drops in Good Will Hunting, writes about the letters between Founding Father John Adams and his wife Abigail. The two had a special thing compared to the other Founding Fathers' marriages and most marriages of the time.

It is difficult for us today to appreciate how different that patriarchal eighteenth century was, not just in its general acceptance of slavery but also in its treatment of women. Women rarely had an independent existence, at least in law. In public records they were usually referred to as the "wife of," or the "daughter of," or the "sister of," a man. Before marriage, women legally belonged to their fathers, and after marriage they belonged to their husbands. A married woman was a femme covert: she could not sue or be sued, make contracts, draft wills, or buy and sell property. It went without saying that women could not hold political office or vote. They were considered to be dependent like children, and their husbands often treated them like children. A husband might address his wife as "dear Child" or by her Christian name, but he would be addressed in return as "Mr."

Nader vs. Kerry
Dan Johnson-Weinberger was Nader's Illinois manager during the 2000 election but is now pulling for Kerry.

His blog links to Eric Zorn's Notebook (registration required). Zorn is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and exemplifies everything wrong with the official Left. Maybe I'm being unfair and Zorn is a smart, knowledgable guy, but his columns almost always cause my eyes to glaze over.

Still, no doubt he helped in a small way to get Illinois to raise its minimum wage.

Advance ticket sales
Tickets go on sale Saturday at noon for the November 13th(!) Pixies show at the Scare-agon Brawlroom here in Chicago.

There's no denying it, I've fallen for Drea de Matteo. (What's a weblog for, but to list your crushes for the world to see). I'm not made of wood. In the latest episode of the Sopranos, her character Adrianna almost hooks up with the mob boss Tony, even though she's engaged to his #2, Chris-tuh-fuh, as she calls him.

Tony is recently separated but nonetheless, the plot line reminded me of something from Martin Amis's novel "Yellow Dog." Joseph Andrews is a high-end porno producer and - sorta like Tony - a semi-retired London crime boss.

'Crazy 'Jo', it turns out, was in the habit of 'doing' his favourite lieutenants' 'birds', and if the lieutenants complained he'd 'do' them as well, though in a different sense. 'Hey Jo. You want to stuff my bird so you can pretend you're me?' suggests Keith the Snake, the most favoured lieutenant of all. 'You want to stuff my bird so you can pretend you're her?' Earlier on, there's an allusion to the scene in Blue Velvet in which the sex-crazed villain, Frank Booth, shows that he's in love with his disturbing associate Ben. But the movie never spells it out, unlike Yellow Dog. 'He wants to have them so he does them,' Xan says. 'And has their wives.' 'Mm,' his interlocutor says. 'Hence the love of pain: he's correcting himself for it.'

I'll never forget a dinner where activist professor Rashid Khalidi confessed he couldn't understand what his son saw in the The Sopranos. The encyclopedic polymath Christopher Hitchens added he didn't like it either, but then he doesn't watch TV. He does go to movies and didn't care for Tom Cruise's Last Samurai.

Give 'Em Hell
Hellboy deserves the accolades it's been receiving. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie even though it hit a little too close to home and I was slightly hung-over at the time.

Hellboy is a demon from Hell who was discovered when he was a small kid by a British paranormal specialist and raised to fight on the side of good. Now (mostly) grown up, he works for a secret government agency and has a bit of an attitude problem. (Understandable seeing as how he's freaky-looking demon with a tail. He does try to "fit in" by sanding down his horns and cracking wise with his fellow human agents.) His coworker freaks include a psychic fish-person and Liz, a Sylvia Plath-like firestarter played by Selma Blair. Hellboy has a crush on Liz and only lets down his macho cheekiness guard when she's around.

Will Liz try to be more "normal" and date the new team member/FBI agent John Myers or will she walk on the wild side and embrace her "outsiderness" by taking a chance on Hellboy? Can the team stop German and Russian fascists from bringing on a H.P. Lovecraftian apocalypse? I won't ruin it for you.

Peter Bergen, who often appears on CNN, and Scott Armstrong, founder of the indispensible National Security Archive, suggest questions for Dr. Rice.

They are particularly hawkish in regards to Afghanistan and the Taliban. Bergen suggests we should have invaded immediately instead of waiting for a couple of months (can you imagine the resulting outcry from the anti-war people?). Armstrong wants to ask Dr. Rice why we don't have more troops in Afghanistan. Maybe because they're all in Iraq?

Cup of Chicha attended a Q & A with Lorrie Moore. Maybe Moore isn't that much of a recluse.

Survivor's Guilt
This past Thursday, PBS's Frontline ran a two-hour long documentary about the Rwandan genocide which occurred 10 years ago this month. The clips with General Romeo Dallaire, head of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Rwanda at the time, are particularly heartbreaking. You just want to hug the guy, tell him it wasn't his fault and he did the best he could do under the hellish circumstances.

If you're suffering from survivor's guilt such words don't really do much for you. All you can do is muddle on with the essential help of family and friends.

My suicidal attempts were based on booze. I starting falling into these depressions, and I'd just drink and drink and then I'd cut myself or try to jump off things, but more often than not that was totally ineffective because I was pissed to the gills. It's only that and people checking up on me that prevented me from killing myself. … I'm not the man I was, and never will become [him again], but hopefully with some drugs or medication that I take, just like someone who's got diabetes takes insulin, to keep me stable … -- that will be my life.

Having read Philip Gourevitch's We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families and Samantha Power's "A Problem from Hell" I knew a bit about the genocide but I wasn't aware of the heroism of Capt. Mbaye Diagne, a young Senegalese U.N. military observer and "Cool Hand Luke" character. A devout Muslim, he'd go out on solo rescue missions and charm his way past the genocidaires' checkpoints. From the video you can tell he's a grade A badass with a sense of humor that would put bloodthirsty killers in stitches and would keep up the morale of comrades like General Dallaire and the others the U.N. abandoned.

The Staggering Sunshine of the Heartbreaking Mind
The word on the street was right again, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind makes you think and laugh. Plus, it's got David Cross and Mark Ruffalo who at one point goes off on a digression about the Clash, "the only band that matters." And if a smiley Kate Winslet flashing her pantied crotch at you won't put a smile on your face, I don't know what will.

Still, it seems to be a film directed more at the ladies. It's a relationship movie which tells us we should "hang in there" because "it's worth it." A nice sentiment, but if I were Joel (Jim Carrey) I wouldn't have tried to get back together with Clementine (Kate Winslet) because she's too high maintenance and bitchy. Joel can be a neurotic dick so maybe he doesn't have grounds for complaint.