I know that this blog hasn't had any original entries for quite some time now. I was stuck at a place that does not have a reliable internet connection, a ridiculous limit and my old laptop aka the pain machine (I like being with my family, but the infrastructure was a big part of the reason why I struggled so hard to get out of there).
Anyways. Going into December, I did not realize that "a decade was coming to an end". This is the first decade that I've captured from beginning to end, a decade in which my taste in everything was shaped, and a good part of who I am now and possibly who I will be in the future. I also like lists, but 2009 didn't feel like the date to do lists about what happened in the ten years previous (the "oughts"? Seriously?). I could do a list of the greatest records of the decade but that would contain exactly the same artits artists I keep on raving about here. You already know what I like. Some people try to continue the conversation about how TV shows turned into art by naming the most important shows of the decade but every single show I've considered important has already been talked about (but how can you compile such a list and name "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" after "Survivor" and "American Idol"?)
I don't see the point in compiling such lists. I'd be more interested in hearing why some people chose particular records or shows - why they became so important to them individually, instead of attempting to decide how influental a particular record or show was. I'd name "Lifted Or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground" as one of the most important records for me personally because it was one of the first that drove home the importance of lyrics. They got stuck in my head and I HAD to listen to the entire record at least twice a day to exorcize the ghosts (in 2003). I'd probably mention that I was watching ridiculous German "reality" TV while doing my first ninth grade math homework when the news of a burning sky scraper in New York scrolled through the lower part of the screen, and everyone I called spent the entire day glued to the screen, feeling that this would change the course of history immediately. I'd talk about the evening when I was sitting in a cinema alone for the first time, in a daze for about 85 minutes, and so happy that I didn't have to talk about it afterwards, that I didn't have to share the experience (the film was "Gespenster" by Christian Petzold). I'd try to make up a story about an endless summer in which I was finding so much new music and sitting outside in my parents' garden, listening to "Nude as the News" again and again. No list could capture any of this. I'm happy to sum up a year, but ten years of my life?
Tenth Doctor, and your marvellous head of hair, who provided me with a good enough fake British accent to impress a visiting professor. (The second part of Tennant's final turn airs on New Year's Eve)
"Scheuch betont, er habe die Witwe Haiders frühzeitig informiert und sie trage den Beschluss mit. Heute vormittag habe er dann Josef Bucher gesagt, dass er alle seine Funktionen zurücklege. Er habe keinen Weg mehr mit dem Bundes-BZÖ gesehen, da "dieses immer stärker vom freiheitlichen Weg abgekommen" sei, so Scheuch mit Verweis auf Homo-Ehe und die angestrebte wirtschaftsliberale Politik. "Werte wie Familie, Tradition und Heimatliebe haben für uns allergrößte Bedeutung."
DerStandard: FPÖ und Kärntner BZÖ fusionieren, 16. Dezember 2009
Der relevante Kärntner Teil des BZÖ tritt in eine CDU-CSU-artige Konstellation mit der FPÖ - Die Freiheitlichen in Kärnten ziehen damit einer Partei, die bei den Nationalratswahlen 2008 10,7 % schaffte, die Basis unter den Füßen weg (denn in Kärnten schaffte die Partei 38,5 %, in den anderen Bundesländern um die 10 %)
"With her last record composed solely of covers, Marshall added that she has plenty of original songs for her next release, which would be her first album of new material since 2006's 'The Greatest'. "Instead of 'Jukebox' I was going to put out another record. I didn't get back to those songs and I kept writing more and more," she explained. "I'm also frightened because some of them are sad again, and I feel really nervous about that."
I can write term papers in less than four days and still get a good grade (which possibly says more about my major than about me, but still). I can translate and spell-check pages of EU-funding requests without any problem although my only accomplishment related to the European Union so far was getting a mere D on every single course I was required to take on the subject. I can fix the electric wiring of my apartment without killing myself and it even works. What I can't do, however, is not procrastinate a phone call until eternity that I seriously do not want to make. For future reference: if I decide to contact you via mail, that usually means that a particular neurosis on my part has taken its toll and I have decided that mail is the way I want to do this. Ergo - please write back. Do not wait for me to call you and ask why you did not write back.
Sincerely,
the Stranger who has just tried to call you but you did not pick up and so I now have to wait the entire evening for you to call back which you probably won't do because you failed to answer my mail for an entire week.
"I want the advent of a degree of functional nanotechnology in a world that will remain recognizably descended from the one I woke in this morning. I want my world transfigured, yet I want my place in that world to be equivalent to the one I now occupy. I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want a free lunch. And I've found the way to have it, it seems. Though you have too. And what, we have to ask ourselves, went wrong there?"
I heard about Lightning Dust a couple of weeks ago, quite likely on an "All Songs Considered" Podcast. After listening to some of their songs, I somehow decided that I didn't find them that interesting. Then, their song "I Knew" was used in the Season 4 trailer of "Skins" (a perfect song for the character of Emily), and I reconsidered my initial opinion - turns out, this Vancouver band is actually pretty great. The two founding members are Amber Webber and Joshua Wells (both members of "Black Mountain) - but for this Tiny Desk concert, they were supported by Amber's sister Ashley, who used to be a member of the now disbanded "The Organ" until 2004, and Ryan Peters.
There are two aspects of New York State Senator Diane Savino's speech on marriage equality (which did not pass the New York State Senate) that I want to point out: First, her description of what role the state plays in the business of marriage, second her debunking of the myth that gay marriage devalues "traditional marriage".
First, the question of whether or not the state judges the quality of a marriage:
"We in government don’t determine the quality or the validity of peoples’ relationships. If we did we would not issue three-quarters of the marriage licenses we do, and I know there are many people in the religious community who feel that we’re going to force this on them, when that in fact is not true. We have never done that. I’m a Roman Catholic. The Catholic church has the right to deny me the sacrament of marriage if they determine the person I choose to marry is unfit or our relationship doesn’t meet their standards. City Hall does not have that right. That will not change under this bill, that will never change. Religious institutions can continue to practice discrimination with respect to the sacrament of marriage. We don’t. We shouldn’t. We should not do it for gay and lesbian couples."
I will be discussing the Austrian case, but I feel that many of the arguments made against gay marriage transgress national and even come cultural boarders. The argument that the state does not "determine the quality or the validity of peoples' relationship" and only has the role to "administer a contract" between two people is of course true if a man and a woman of legal age who both have the Austrian citizenship choose to marry each other: if any of those factors change, the state does indeed judge the validity of peoples' relationship, because marriage is connected to certain privileges - like citizenship.
"mindestens sechsjähriger rechtmäßiger und ununterbrochener Aufenthalt . in Österreich, sofern
* eine fünfjährige aufrechte Ehe mit einer österreichischen Staatsbürgerin/einem österreichischen Staatsbürger besteht und die Eheleute im gemeinsamen Haushalt leben oder * der Status "Asylberechtigte/Asylberechtigter" vorliegt oder * der Besitz einer EWR-Staatsangehörigkeit nachgewiesen wird oder * die Antragstellerin/der Antragsteller in Österreich geboren wurde oder * die Verleihung aufgrund von bereits erbrachten und zu erwartenden außerordentlichen Leistungen auf wissenschaftlichem, wirtschaftlichem, künstlerischem oder sportlichem Gebiet im Interesse der Republik Österreich liegt" [help.gv.at]
The state does decide who is fit to marry (the legal age for marriage is eighteen), and can grant sixteen years old the right to marry if "they are appear mature enough and their partner is of age" (the Austrian Ehegesetz can be found here). Forbidding factors are family relations, a previously existing marriage that hasn't been divorced.
The state does not deny the right to a non-citizen (Austrian or European Union) to legally marry a citizen, but if the marriage does not meet the above cited standards, it might decide to withhold certain privileges, which can result in deportation if the partner loses his residence authorization - and if the marriage is deemed to have been forged so that one of the partners could get the other's citizenship, it can be annulled. In the Presse-article cited below, police spokespeople indicate that the so-called "Scheinehe" is mostly investigated in cases that involve migrants from Turkey or former Yugoslavia - when EU-citizens marry Austrian citizens to gain tax benefits, it's not investigated. The process of deciding whether or not a marriage is "real" is naturally one that considers quality and judges what marriage means - applying standards that no "hegemonic" marriage (between Austrian citizens) has to meet to remain legal.
In short - at least in the Austrian case, the state does indeed concern itself with the question of the quality of a relationship, although only in some cases.
Now, for the second part of the speech that I found particularly well-worded and incredibly moving:
"I know many people are concerned about the destruction of the sanctity of marriage, as well, and they view this as a threat. But let me as you something, ladies and gentlemen, what are we really protecting when you look at the divorce rate in our society?[...] That’s what we’ve done to marriage in America, where young women are socialized from the time they’re five years old to think of being nothing but a bride, they plan every day what they’ll wear, how they’ll look, the invitations, the whole bit. They don’t spend five minutes thinking about what it means to be a wife. People stand up there before god and man , even in Senator Diaz’s church. They swear to love, honor and obey. They don’t mean a word of it.If there’s anything wrong, any threat to the sanctity of marriage in America, it comes from those of us who have the privilege and the right, and we have abused it for decades."
The instititution of marriage has always been a tool of those who have the power to set standards in order to discriminate. The law does not state what the social gain of marriage is, but the privileges that come with it indicate that society considers it to be of value - but the argument that the ultimate aim of marriage is children and the future of society is ideologically tainted, and there is no way to back it up. First of, the argument is difficult to prove quantitatively (recent statistics in the US show that about 40 percent of all children are born out of wedlock, but an additional question would be whether to count every child born in a marriage or whether it is more important to count children who are raised for a good portion of their childhood in a marriage). The state does not require a statement of intent to raise children prior to a marriage, nor does it limit marriage to people who are physically able to procreate - it specifically excludes same-sex partners, but there are several other potential scenarios in which a marriage might be intentionally or unintentionally childless. My favourite argument is that same-sex marriage somehow devaluates the marriages of heterosexual couples, or at least the 50 percent who manage to avoid a divorce. Since when do other people's relationship have any qualitative influence on your own? It's a hollow argument disguising homophobia (just as limiting the "eingetragene Partnerschaft" to same-sex couples is a form of discrimination, and the decision to deny the same ceremony to gay and lesbian couples reveals that this is not at all about what is best for the country, but about personal prejudices), and there is no social gain in forbidding homosexual couples to marry (they aren't going to end up turning straight just because of that. No seriously, they WON'T).
The Man in Horn-Rimmed Glasses aka Noah Bennet, Heroes Season One Episode Seventeen - Company Man.
I rewatched some "Heroes" Season One to remember how I felt about the show before subsequent seasons somehow made me not care for most of the characters anymore with is a terrible thing for any show to do. I did this because now I somehow find myself caring about them again (it's probably the teen angst, I always fall for that), although I haven't for two years, and I can't put my finger on what exactly changed. Anyway, the new two episodes of "Dollhouse" reminded me of the quote, and Noah Bennet (also Angela Petrelli) are characters who would fit perfectly into the Dollhouse-construct.
I hope that our few remaining friends Give up on trying to save us I hope we come out with a fail-safe plot To piss off the dumb few that forgave us
I hope the fences we mended Fall down beneath their own weight And I hope we hang on past the last exit I hope it's already too late
And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here Someday burns down And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away And I never come back to this town again in my life
I hope I lie And tell everyone you were a good wife And I hope you die I hope we both die
I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow I hope it bleeds all day long Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises We're pretty sure they're all wrong
I hope it stays dark forever I hope the worst isn't over And I hope you blink before I do And I hope I never get sober
And I hope when you think of me years down the line You can't find one good thing to say And I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out You'd stay the hell out of my way
I am drowning There is no sign of land You are coming down with me Hand in unlovable hand
And I hope you die I hope we both die
[auf "Tallahassee", 2002]
Because you know you gotta love a band that has fans who consider that an anthem.
"The 30,000 troops that Mr. Obama is sending are part of what one administration official characterized as a short-term, high-intensity effort to regain the initiative against the Taliban. Administration officials said that they were hoping to get a commitment for an additional 5,000 to 8,000 troops from NATO allies — perhaps as early as Friday at a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels — which would bring the number of additional troops in Afghanistan to close to the 40,000 that General McChrystal was seeking. Mr. Obama is sending three of the four brigades requested by General McChrystal. The first Marines will begin arriving as early as Christmas, and all forces will be in place by May, a senior administration official said."
But Obama said nothing in the speech that put actual pressure on the government. The surge can succeed militarily but won't be worth anything if Hamid Karzai doesn't change his behavior and the Afghan army doesn't improve. Obama knows the government in Kabul is corrupt or, more benignly, that Karzai's goals don't match America's. President Obama wants to pressure Kabul but can't be seen to be doing so too openly, or it will undermine Karzai with his own people. So President Obama announced no verifiable set of benchmarks or penalties for Afghanistan—the very requirements that Sen. Obama said were necessary for for Bush's Iraq troop surge in 2007. The president's strategy, according to administration officials, is to circumvent the Karzai government, inspiring regional agencies through financial incentives and basically avoiding the Kabul government altogether.
