Archive
Supreme Court Shits on Habeas Corpus for Gitmo Detainees
As someone who has has their habeas corpus rights violated in the past, this news really depresses me.
Four years ago, the Supreme Court did its duty as a guardian of the Constitution by ruling that Congress couldn’t prevent inmates at Guantanamo Bay from filing petitions for habeas corpus, a venerable feature of Anglo-American law that allows prisoners to challenge their confinement in court. This week, the justices walked away from that responsibility by refusing to review lower court rulings that have narrowed the protections of its 2008 decision to the vanishing point.
Democracy Now! interviews two guests on the matter: Shayana Kadidal, senior managing attorney of the Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative at the Center for Constitutional Rights, and investigative journalist Andy Worthington, who reports that of the 169 prisoners still held, over half — 87 in total — were cleared for release by President Obama’s Guantánamo Review Task Force.
Artists! I Need Advice
When my ex moved to Florida, he asked me to paint him something “manly and tragic” to hang up in his new place. I haven’t painted since high school, because it was only a hobby and I was never proficiently good. (I did set painting for plays and musicals, but that’s a different type of painting.) But it still sounded like a fun commission.
For my “manly and tragic” scene I picked bull elephant seals locked in battle. I chose Watercolor because it’s the only full paint set I had left over from high school.
Here’s the problem: It’s two years after I started and I have no idea how to finish. It just doesn’t look “done.” Especially the first seal; it looks really flat but I’m not sure where to add contrast that won’t make it too bulbous and weird.
Click to Enlarge
I tried doing various splash techniques in the water with white paint, but it became very obvious that picking Watercolor on Watercolor Paper as my medium maybe wasn’t the best idea. Once I run out of a color, it’s very hard to make a matching shade again. And watercolor doesn’t “layer” well.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe mix it with other media?
(Importing into Photoshop is a last resort.)
Embrace the Hipster
A lot of denizens of Brooklyn have a tendency shy away from “hipster” and associations with “hipsterism.” I don’t get it. When did hipster become pejorative?
I went to a liberal arts school, blog about progressive politics, and am casually wearing a silk vest.
I bought the earrings from a girl who went to Dartmouth and specializes in eco-friendly design. I own three different fedoras. I’m writing this on a MacBook. I’m drinking looseleaf, fair-trade tea. I knew who the fuck Arcade Fire was. Irony is one of my favorite humor devices.
If I’m not a hipster, I don’t know what is.
A Proposal to Classify Happiness as a Psychiatric Disorder
Oh hey, a PubMed article with the full text available.
Abstract:
It is proposed that happiness be classified as a psychiatric disorder and be included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals under the new name: major affective disorder, pleasant type. In a review of the relevant literature it is shown that happiness is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, is associated with a range of cognitive abnormalities, and probably reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. One possible objection to this proposal remains–that happiness is not negatively valued. However, this objection is dismissed as scientifically irrelevant.
This was published in a 1992 Journal of Medical Ethics. It was obviously never taken up on by the overlords of the DSM-IV, published in 2000. The guy who wrote it is a Professor of Clinical Psychology in the UK with a specialization in the psychotic aspects of mental illness.
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So the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is scheduled for a republication (fifth edition) in May 2013, and there’s been a fair amount of media controversy about some of the changes, mostly around lower standards for addiction disorders.
I skimmed over the Proposed Changes part of the website that the APA set up for the new edition and didn’t find anything egregious. Etiology of a disorder doesn’t matter much beyond understanding how to fix it. But how behaviors are treated by society do matter. (In my relativist opinion, psychologists know nothing about feelings, except for their own. They only know behavior.*)
By changing a medical text of authority, I have a feeling it will lower stigma and help erase the false emotional/physical dichotomy model of symptoms that people, including mental health professionals, seem to acknowledge as a gauge for importance during treatment. And these results would, uncontroversially, be a good thing.
*I’m using “know” here in a sort of vague, philosophical context. I mean, we’re never going to have a better scale for pain, emotional or physical, beyond a subjective “Pick a number 1-10.”
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Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” Teaser Trailer Released
The film stars Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Christoph Waltz, and is scheduled to be released on December 25, 2012.
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The Atlatnic‘s Ta-Nehisi Coates gives his thoughts:
Sorry, Ta-Nehesi, I couldn’t hear your political correctness over how awesome the music was.