Bush admin perverts "stressed nudity"

Another must-read from Robert Parry:

Bush's Interrogators Stressed Nudity

The CIA shared with George W. Bush’s Justice Department the details of how an interrogation strategy – with an emphasis on forced nudity and physical abuse – could train prisoners in “learned helplessness” and demonstrate “the complete control of Americans.”

This report comes after another that showed that one of the Bush admin's favorite torture techniques was the Christian practice of forced enemas.

I'm sure we'll *never* read about what perverts the Republicans are from our local Star Tribune, which is obsessed with making governor BridgeFAIL president.

Dear Star Tribune:

Yesterday David Brauer came up with a memo from a headhunter firm looking for a new publisher for the Strib. We've all known about the paper's turn to the right and stupidity for about a decade now, but we've never seen it spelled out in the organization's own documents. In honor of the document I sent the following letter in today, knowing it has about a -2 percent chance of being published:

* * *

For about 10 years now I've seen this newspaper lean then careen rightward. The installment of a movement conservative as the director of political coverage (Doug Tice) and the hiring of another movement conservative (and a racist to boot) - Katherine Kersten - as a columnist signaled the change. Now it's out in the open with the publication of a document sent out by a headhunter firm looking for a new publisher for the Strib that described the "challenge" facing a new hire:

“A unique challenge is continuing management’s successful efforts to change the widespread image of the Star Tribune from a strongly liberal paper to a strictly non-partisan news source and a more moderate and less strident editorial page voice.”

Notice how the document says "image" - admitting the paper isn't really liberal, just that righties perceive it as such. This tack to the right will win the paper no new right-wing readers - they are unconvincable, but it has already lost credibility and readership among true liberals who have a brain, since the paper has been deliberately dumbing itself down for a decade. This pandering to the right is *politically motivated* reporting - the exact opposite of your professed neutrality, and another chip in your already tarnished reputation.

The sadistic fucks of the Bush administration

We're all well aware of the torture justifiers of the Bush administration - Bush, Cheney, Addington, Yoo, Bybee, Delanhunty (who now works at the "Christian" University of St Thomas in St Paul). What we weren't aware of until now is what sick fucks those bastards are. Not only did they approve torture, they apparently did it with relish, micromanaging every bit of torture, then documenting it like the Nazis. If Eric Holder doesn't go after these guys he and the president are almost as culpable as the pricks of the Bush administration.

To get a little taste of the kind of info being sent to the CIA and the White House, consider this: One of the torture techniques was forced enemas. I don't know about you, but one of the things that most says "Christian" to me is a forced enema.

Bill Maher's blind spot

Throughout Bill Maher's movie Religulous the comedian deservedly skewers his subjects for the absurdity of their beliefs. A reasonable person would of course agree with Maher - the myths of the bible and other 2,000 year old religions are so patently false and absurd - not to mention un-edifying - that an inquisitor like Maher can find no cogent reason why people believe them.

On his show Real Time last week Maher had as a guest Sam Harris, the famous debunker of religious myth who pins the blame for religious belief on a "social disorder" that prevents non-believers from pointing out the absurdity of modern religious practice. Harris also rightly pins approbation on moderates who are tolerant of religious mythology, no matter how dangerous it is, with basically a live-and-let-live perspective, unwilling to confront others on their beliefs. Maher only half jokingly mused that religious belief might somehow be rooted in a neurological disorder.

And therein lies the key problem both with Maher's movie and his views about religion in general: Even though he posits as the reason for his work the quest for why people believe religious mythology, he actually shows no insight into what people get out of it, or why they cling to it so tenaciously even though it is so obviously false. This lack of understanding robs Maher's work of an empathy for his subjects that would make it that much more powerful. I find no reason why Maher would not understand this important point, given that Ernest Becker explained it all so elegantly more than 30 years ago in his seminal book Denial of Death, built on the work of Freud's associate Otto Rank.

People believe in religions, no matter how absurd, for one main reason: As the only creature on earth capable of understanding their own eventual demise, humans require a death-denial strategy to merely get through each day. So haunting is the specter of death and nothingness that people are willing to believe almost any myth to avoid the paralyzing fear that would basically render them unable to act. The fact that we now rely on 2,000 year old myths that were nutty to begin with doesn't help things. But in matters of life after death, any promise of eternal life will do in a mortality storm^TM.

People's belief in religion is not a neurological disorder, as Maher joked, nor a social disorder, as Harris speculated. It is a somewhat logical and handy, if increasingly ineffective, coping mechanism for dealing with the fear of death. These beliefs are what Otto Rank called "necessary lies" we tell ourselves in order to get through each day. In Ernest Becker's words, these lies we tell ourselves are the reason that to be neurotic is actually to be normal. A dearth of death-denial lies leaves a person anxious and fretful and unable to act. Rank believed that the quality of our lives is in a large sense determined by the quality of our immortality lies. Those that take a large toll on our time, our reason or our compassion, i.e., are inferior to those strategies that allow us to fully use our minds and hearts in ways that don't fundamentally hurt ourselves or others, and allow us to comfortably expand into our own private universes.

This hole in Maher's world view deprives his work of empathy for his subjects who so distort their lives with religious faith. Maher's work would be that much more convincing if he was able to show sympathy for his subjects, elevating it beyond the mere (deserved) mockery of religion.

The fact that modern people cling to their religion so tenaciously actually points to its fundamental weakness. And in fact, though people admit to religious belief most are not actually believers. Money and medicine are the real backstop of immortality today. Doctors are the equivalent of the ancient priests - they even wear white "robes." Just look at how people fight disease, even when they are death's door. If they really believed in heaven why would anyone even seek medical treatment for catastrophic disease? After all - if you're on the way to heaven why would you subject yourself to something like chemotherapy? You wouldn't.

So even though people don't really believe in the immortality promises of religion they cannot afford to take chances in the realm of final death. Modern man finds it is more comforting to cling to the weak and unbelievable promises of ancient religion, while hedging his bets with piles of money and the priests of modern medicine.

Early Spring walkabout in Arizona

Hello again imaginary audience. For me personally there is nothing more effective at Spring fever alleviation than a trip through parts of Arizona. A few weeks ago I spent three days with a friend in Phoenix, then embarked on a four day drive through some of my favorite parts of the state. I should add that I had no fixed plan - I just winged it, starting from Tucson.

First I drove from Phoenix to Tucson first on highway 60 west to the town of Superior, then via state highway 77, which runs through the San Pedro valley southwest of Phoenix. It's a beautiful drive and keeps you off the Interstate.

Once in Tucson I checked in at the Westwardlook resort, which is my favorite place to stay.

View from the hot tub at the Westwardlook

Though they have a four star restaurant at the Westwardlook, I don't like it that formal, so I usually eat at the outdoor cafe. In honor of my wife who couldn't make the trip I ordered a Prickly Pear Margarita, which is a little sweeter than a regular Margarita, so it goes down pretty easily.



The next day it was off to Kitt Peak Observatory - about 60 miles southwest of Tucson. I knew from other trips, mainly to Nogales, that anytime you travel near the Arizona/Mexico border you're bound to encounter swarms of border patrol, including roadblocks where every car traveling north is stopped. I had planned to visit the observatory then continue on west to Organ Pipe National Park and the town of Ajo. However, after considering the pain of dealing with roadblocks and the border patrol I decided to make the trip to Kitt Peak just a day trip. I did pass one roadblock on the way south, and was stopped by the same unit, which had moved south, on my return. When you combine the militarization of southern Arizona and the militarization of our airports you begin to understand what it must have been like to live behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.

The road to Kitt is pretty much flat as you drive southwest from Tucson. After about 40 miles there's a turnoff to the left that is a 12 mile road full of switchbacks that leads to the top of the peak.

This is a view from about halfway up, looking northwest.

A view up the mountain as you near the observatories.

Here's some tourist at Kitt Peak; behind him is the solar observation telescope, which analyzes infrared waves from the sun.

A view of one of Kitt's traditional telescopes. It's clear from taking a tour of the mountain that the place could use a bit of an upgrade. No doubt the people there are making heroic efforts to coax the most out of old equipment, but I hope they're getting a little of that Obama stimulus money to buy some new computers and such.

The next day I drove from Tucson to Flagstaff via the backroads. The road from Globe to Show Low is a particularly beautiful drive. About halfway you cross the Salt River (see photo below) in a spot where it looks remarkably like the Grand Canyon, and where there is a trailhead to rafting and hiking in the Salt and Black River Recreation Area.

In the right-center of the picture (click to enlarge) you see the access point to the upper canyon of the Salt River off of US 60 (Arizona 77).

The reason I drove to Flagstaff was for a trip to Wupatki National Monument the next day. Wupatki is an ancient puebloan settlement (map) that was occupied up until about 800 years ago, when climate and other factors forced its dissolution.

This is a view of the main Wupatki settlement, looking down on the complex from the east. To the left you see the main apartment dwellings; in the near center is the community room, a place for ritual ceremonies; at the bottom center in the ballfield where the Puebloans played a form of basketball.

I find it interesting when there to imagine the Puebloans as they lived. The landscape was different 800 years ago - there was much more water, and the plain was covered in native grasses. But you get the idea that it was a somewhat difficult life at Wupatki, having to look for water and fuel far afield. But maybe the payoff was the amazing beauty of the desert landscape and the suitability of the geography for community living.

This picture and the one below are of the ballfield.

Down near the ballfield is a thing called the "blowhole," basically an opening in the ground that leads to underground spaces where the air pressure may be lower or greater than the surface air pressure. If the pressure underground is greater the hole "exhales," and vice versa if the pressure is lower underground.



At Wupatki there is a great view to the southeast of San Francisco Peak, which is a 12,000 foot mountain just north of Flagstaff:



If you click on the above picture and look closely in the center you'll see there's an opening in the desert that was probably an ancient wash that the Puebloans used as a community gathering place. They built their homes on the edges of these things, probably because the living spaces provided good protection from the wind.

To get back to Phoenix from Wupatki I took the scenic route to Sedona, then over to Jerome and on to Prescott. Below is a picture of Jerome when approaching from the northeast:



Jerome is an old mining town that almost turned into a ghost town when the mine closed, but is now sort of an artists colony. It sits on a steep hill where the streets are almost terraced parallel to the hill.

From Jerome I took the overland route to Prescott, a road that wound around the mountains for about 15 miles before emerging back into the valley. After that it was a short trip to Phoenix and the flight home. All in all I'd have to say a very successful trip.

The Twin Towers on July 4, 1986

A photo in today's New York Times (right) reminded me of a similar photo I made over the July 4th weekend rededicating the Statue of Liberty in 1986. At the time I was a photographer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. At the last minute editors decided to send a photographer out for the festivities in New York, ostensibly to take pictures for a series of reports to be written by the great Larry Batson. Being the new kid in the newsroom I got the assignment. My friend Rick Elden and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Renata decided to fly to New York at the same time to deliver a backdrop for a New York photo shoot.

Thus was set four of the funnest days of my life. Since the paper waited until the last moment to send me the only hotel available was an expensive French one near Broadway and 54th. Not that I spent much time there - for four nights I arrived back at the hotel no earlier than 2 am. Anyways - I shot two or three assignments for Larry Batson stories, but for the most part hung out with Rick or just ambled around the city. I should tell you Rick is a performance artist who stands on his head and gets pictures taken at various places and in various ways. I personally have a pretty good library of this kind of picture. One day we were walking across the Brooklyn bridge and I took this picture:

New York provided many interesting backdrops for photos of Rick on his head. His weekend ended with him proposing to Renata while standing on his head at the top of the Statue of Liberty (the day after I went home - sorry, no photo of that). Here he is on the beach in Brooklyn. For some reason I didn't have a motor drive for the shot and Rick kept imploring "Shoot, shoot," but I had to wait for the right moment. In the end I got off two frames; here's one of them:



Here he is in front of Nathan's:



And on the subway, entertaining the troops:



That's Renae in black on the left, and Rick's friend Brian in the chex. My favorite picture of the week happened late one night while we were walking on a street. We passed a group of people and one of Rick's friends noticed that the group we passed was actually Andy Warhol and his entourage. Rick immediatly backtracked and announced to Warhol who he was and that he stands on his head as performance art, whereupon he proceeded to stand on his head on the darkened street corner. Immediately a number of the entourage produced snapshot cameras and began taking pictures. I only had one camera with me, and no flash, so I stood behind the scene and put the camera on bulb and opened up the shutter. The picture was illuminated by the flash of one of Warhol's friends, producing the following picture, which I transmitted to the Strib the next day, and which ran in the paper.

Grasshopper blogging

Grasshopper in the backyard this morning - the cold must really put the freeze on them: