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A Small Test of Character

Finally, Madoff acknowledged the people sitting behind him. “I apologize to my victims. I will turn and face you,” Madoff said, seeming to deploy every ounce of his willpower to twist his torso and face the victims. It felt as if it lasted no more than a second, and Madoff sounded as if he were reading from a stage direction. “I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t help you.” Then he sat down.

Christ.

posted 4 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

Don't Be Alarmed

I haven’t gone anywhere; I’m just finishing a book. But some related journalism will be out soon, so watch this space. For now you can read about tidal power in Great Britain, if you like.

UPDATE: Or you can read about surfers in the Gaza Strip.

UPDATE 2: Or you can read about surfing in São Tomé, (pictured above), in .pdf format. São Tomé is an island off the coast of Nigeria, visited for the surf book last year. The article in question came out two weeks ago in the Financial Times’ annual “Travel Unravelled” issue, which doesn’t seem to be online.

posted 51 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

The Sons of Liberty

This just aired on American television. It’s a history lesson about the Liberty Tree in Boston by Sean Hannity, an entertainer on Fox who poses as a journalist to make people laugh. At about 1:20 he starts to explain Fox News’ “own Liberty Tree,” a cartoon that demonstrates to the people, over fife and drum music, just how Barack Obama is turning the nation toward socialism. You can watch for yourself how the apples of industry, commerce, and security (Fox News’ “fruits of our liberty”) fall from the bough and get boxed up into a crate:

Now, I have problems of my own with the somersaults being turned in Washington over the banking boondoggle. But for sheer news value, the Fox News Liberty Tree has a couple of antecedents. The first is cartoons like this:

And the second, more immediate antecedent is an illuminating cartoon from America’s recent culture wars:

... which is how Creation Scientists justify their war against teaching Darwinism in public schools. You see that axe? You see how it’s aimed at everything evil in the world — inflation, dirty books, hard rock, socialism — created by evolutionary theory and rational doubt? You see how it’s labeled “Scientific Creationists”? Don’t you want it to save the world? Of course you do. Now shut up.

posted 55 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

Please Stop Calling Them Hobbits

The little people of Flores Island, near Komodo, have interesting feet. A study just came out suggesting these 10,000-year-old Indonesian dwarves were probably not genetic freaks but part of a separate species of short human-like creatures that roamed the earth alongside evolutionarily modern humans. Cool. But please, please stop calling them “hobbits.” Yes I know hobbits had interesting feet. I also know they were squat human-like creatures that roamed Middle Earth alongside men and wizards and elves. But they were from a fictional place not unlike England. It wouldn’t bug me so much if the Pacific didn’t have its own legends, which the “hobbit” nonsense only mucks up.

Hawaii has stories about menehune, short forest people who came out at night to build temples or lakes. Flores itself has stories about the Ebu Gogo, squat people who lived wild in caves on the edges of civilization. Since Hawaii was a barren chain of rocks for millenia until people arrived in boats from other Pacific islands, it’s not insane to think small people from Flores island-hopped to Hawaii thousands and thousands of years ago, then mixed with taller Tahitians, who made up the dominant Hawaiian culture and eventually dreamed up the menehune stories. The idea intrigues some scientists enough to take it seriously.

So if you need a cute shorthand for the new species of short people, why not use ready-made fairytales from Polynesia? They might even reflect some natural history. This blogger points out that little-people remains have also been found on Palau, east of the Philippines, where Bilbo Baggins never dared to go.

posted 56 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

Does Torture Work?

William Pfaff:

The torture issue now has largely been turned into one of whether it “works.” The question of law was dealt with by the Bush administration by saying that existing law is outmoded and yields to presidential prerogatives and national security interests. The argument cited against torture is that the damage it did to America’s reputation, and the aid and comfort it gave the enemy, outweighed its claimed advantages.

You can say that the Bush-Cheney position reflects the situation in much contemporary philosophy, which has renounced classical, religious, and other appeals to natural law or “eternal” or innate principles, in its attempt to establish a modern theory of justice. Bush-Cheney-CIA empiricism asserts that torture “works.” The Bush opponent, who shares this philosophical position, must claim that torture doesn’t work, or that the costs are too high.

I am reminded of a cruel joke. A man asks a woman seated next to him at a dinner if she would sleep with him for a million dollars. With whatever hesitation or flirtatiousness, she ends saying yes she would. He then asks if she would do so for five dollars. She angrily asks if he thinks she is a prostitute. He replies, “we have established what you are, we are now dickering over the price.”

Once upon a time, conservative Americans in such a compromised position would have feared for their mortal souls. Now they just yell.

posted 64 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

And Now, Kermit

(And for the two or three comment spammers who have come whirring around this blog like nasty mosquitoes, a little something.)

posted 73 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

Tilting at Turbines

My piece about surfing on the Severn River, in Britain, and why the UK might not want to build a promising tidal-power dam called the Severn Barrage, is up at Miller-McCune.

posted 74 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

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It's Tax Season

... And U.S. Republicans are having teabagging parties, to protest the bailout orgy on Wall Street. Tja. Sounds like fun. I just don’t see how it’ll help.

UPDATE: An Atlantic post explains why Obama’s bold move so far — letting Bush’s tax breaks expire — is less radically socialist than tax rates under Reagan. (See the capital gains tax during Reagan’s second term.)

posted 83 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

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Andy Kaufman Plays the Dating Game

Before he was Latka Gravas, apparently.

posted 89 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

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Hasake Off Gaza Beach

Hasakes might be called “stand-up paddleboards” today, but they’re a traditional wave-riding board used by Arabs in the Mediterranean. Gazan surfers told me they were native to the Gaza Strip, but I’m not sure about that. Israeli lifeguards have used them since the 1950s.

posted 91 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

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Surf in Gaza

posted 92 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

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In Other Middle East News

The creator of a Playmobil series of Bible scenes has been asked to cease and desist by Playmobil lawyers, who argue that dressing up the little toy figures in Biblical costumes, photographing them, and then spreading the good word of the Playmo-Bibel (yep, the instigator is German) violates their trademark. I’m not sure the makers of the Brick Testament ever had this problem. But then they didn’t officially call it a “Lego Bible,” now did they?

I still think the Playmobil corporate boys are full of Pferdescheiss.

posted 93 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

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Radio Free Bob

On bobdylan.com, in case you haven’t been there in a while (I hadn’t), there’s an interesting feature. Click a song, look at the lyrics, and look to the left and see which albums it’s been on. So far so good. Then click one of those new “Listen” buttons. Listen to the song. Nice, right? You get the whole thing, not just a niggardly little sample. But wait! Keep listening. If you leave your browser up, a random assortment of entire Dylan songs starts to play.

With the right software you can send the stream to your home stereo. I don’t think the playlist is unlimited, but wow. It’s the kind of radio I dreamed of in high school. And if you’ve owned most of Dylan’s back catalog in various now-unplayable formats, and have so far refused to buy music you “already own” in this-yer newfangled mp3 format, it’s like meeting old friends.

posted 94 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

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Gaza City Street Scene 2

posted 102 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

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Gaza City Street Scene

posted 103 days ago by Michael Scott Moore

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City on a Hill

Time for an overdue plug for Ed Ward’s new blog from Montpellier — which I believe he likes a little better than Berlin. At least he looks happier in his author photo.