rocketfairy's New Writeups

US ranking on the Human Freedom Index (thing)

2004-02-05T01:33:23Z

This w/u is a brief survey update of the performance of the United States of America in the pertinent criteria, using Purvis's as a template. I concentrate particularly on the developments since the Great Airline Massacre. Please bear in mind that I have no intention of claiming that the US is a dictatorship; it remains internally a highly free place. However, the public trauma and hysteria in 2001 led to widespread disinterest in civil liberty (as often happens at moments of crisis), and the current administration has made some threatening gestures in recent years.

The right to:

travel in own country: The FBI has implemented a "no-fly" list that excludes a huge number of innocent people from flying, presumably based on their names. (The list has not yet led to the detention of any terrorists, as one doesn't usually buy a ticket reading "Osama bin Laden.") We don't know who, exactly, is barred, because the list is secret, maintained

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69 Love Songs (thing)

2004-02-01T17:35:42Z

Stephin Merritt, the mad genius responsible for The Magnetic Fields, was struck by inspiration in a midtown Manhattan gay piano bar. Originally conceived as 100 Love Songs, a musical revue or cabaret, Merritt compromised in number when he realized that 100 2-minute songs, with no downtime or intermissions, would still be a bit lengthy. Eventually, the logistical absurdity of putting on a cabaret with rotating singers and dozens of songs led Merritt to put his ideas on tape (DAT? I have no idea), and 69 Love Songs was born.

Like most of Merritt's work, 69 Love Songs is thoroughly toungue-in-cheek, although many of the songs are incredibly poignant. Merritt places some of his narrators fairly bizarre settings -- a Scotsman leaving for war ("Abigail, Belle of Kilronan"), an encounter with Ferdinand de Saussure ("The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure") -- and writes heartfelt songs of passion, confusion, and loss.…

A Small Place (thing)

2004-01-31T18:54:44Z

A Small Place is Jamaica Kincaid's 1988 essay on the state of post-independence Antigua. The short, often bitter, essay is primarily concerned with the economic stagnation and governmental corruption of the island in the 1980's: Kincaid, born in Antigua but currently residing in Vermont, looks for explainations for the "underdevelopment" of her nation. The text is an outburst of frustration, beautifully written but often ranting; part of its value lies in the fact that Kincaid often does not try to lay specific blame. I'll comment a bit on the overall significance of the book below, but suffice to say that it's a seminal text in Caribbean post-colonial thought.

Note: Forgive this node for its quote-heavy nature. It attempts to be as value-added as possible, but I also want to show a bit of the beauty of Kincaid's writing.

If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see. If you come by aeroplane, you will land

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Country of My Skull (thing)

2004-01-27T06:07:43Z

Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa is Antjie Krog's amazingly powerful work reflecting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which she covered as a radio journalist. Interspersing personal narratives, poetry, and the testimony of victims and perpetrators, Krog lays out the agonizing complexities of amnesty and forgiveness. Reading it, one feels literally torn between the ubuntu of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the desire for revenge or punitive justice voiced by so many spouses, parents, rape survivors, or everyday victims of apartheid. Krog's liberal political commitments are obvious in the book, but she doesn't make it easy: her extended family stands in for Afrikaner alienation, and part of her clearly sympathizes with the more radical anti-apartheid currents.

Probably the most gripping section of the book was the testimony of Dirk Coetzee, a former operative of the secretive Vlakplaas, which carried…

Antjie Krog (person)

2004-01-27T05:40:41Z

Antjie Krog is an Afrikaner radio journalist, poet, and author, most notably of Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa. She hails from Kroonstad, but currently resides in Cape Town, where she covers Parliament for the South African Broadcasting Company.

Krog writes primarily in Afrikaans, but some of her work has been translated:

Lady Anne (1989, poetry)
Account of a Murder (1995, prose)
Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa (1998, ingenious prose about her coverage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission)
Down to My Last Skin (2000, poetry)

Wellbutrin (thing)

2004-01-09T03:55:22Z

Wellbutrin is not, as some commonly think, an SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor, like Prozac), nor is it an MAOI. GlaxoSmithKline's info on the drug(1) mentions that, while Wellbutrin does slightly affect serotonin reuptake, its effects probably derive from its effects on dopamine reuptake.

An interesting note: Wellbutrin was briefly pulled from the market due to a study that indicated it may cause more seizures than SSRI's (on the order of 4 per 1000 patients, as opposed to 2). This result has been called into question, and in any case the seizures mostly occurred among patients who were already seizure-prone. Still, the risk appears on the warning label.

A word about interactions with psychotropic drugs: It's well-known that Wellbutrin doesn't always play well with other antidepressants, and that it may reduce tolerance to alcohol, but risks with respect to other psychotropic drugs are not well documented. GlaxoSmithKline's documentation, as well as…