Di and Danny

I'm almost finished with the complete U2.  I've been listening to it for quite a while now.  My parents and sister collaborated to get me the limited edition U2 IPod for Christmas complete with ever U2 song to date. After listening to a few songs on Christmas morning, I elected to listen to the entire U2 library straight though before listening to anything else.

It was great to strut to in Dublin.  It's almost better up here in the Northwest.  I'm surrounded by some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen.

It's sunset now and I'm sitting on some rocks being battered by a wave a few feet away.

I've been walking all day after waking up to a prepared bath and breakfast.  Di and Danny are incredibly gracious hosts.  I am in their debt.

Sliced mushrooms
Butter
Garlic
Sauté 'till limp
Serve with dry wheat toast

Fresh Mussels (or clams) in a pot with
white wine
butter
garlic
parsley
Boil 'till open, serve with lemon

Find clams by locating two close pin pricks in the sand as the tide retreats.

Toast
Cheese
Tomato

Slow Airs

In Letterkenny, it seems everyone who is 16 and up till around 22 goes to the bar.  Unlike the other pubs I've seen thus far, Oasis is decorated like the classic 1950's roller rink, but one that has been redone to retain the original atmosphere, but still have a modern flare - flatscreen TV's and color-changing fluorescent lights.  No matter it's class, its cheap and provides refuge from the gale that is raging outside.

After waking up late, I raced downstairs this morning, inhaled my breakfast, bid my friends farewell, grabbed my bags (all of them), and hit the street.  I made the bus, which left late anyway, only after realizing I needed to change destinations.  I wondered why everyone kept clarifying whether I meant Donegal town or county.  I decided to check while waiting for the bus to Donegal Town and discovered that Dungloe Town in Donegal County was my intended destination.

The trip was about three hours, which afforded me time to listen to a lot of U2 and reflect on the past few days.

Never tell a drunken Irishman that you play fiddle.  John insisted that I play for him.  To make a long story short, after two and a half hours of polite acquiescing, I had caused half of the band to leave, played the same song five times, and had a hell of a good time doing it.  O'Donnells is the famous pub where the Dubliners got their start.  Somehow, I think my lucky break will come from somewhere else.

O'Shea's Hot Whisky:
1/2 hot water
1/2 whisky
1 spoon sugar
1 lemon wedge
4 cloves in lemon

I am known in a small circle of Dublin musicians as 'the fella who kept playing the slow airs.'

The AP, Lacrosse, and Rape Myths

If you were unlucky enough to read the AP story on the Sacred Heart University lacrosse player sexual assault case, you were the recipient of a huge dose of rape myths. The AP, quotes Bridgeport criminal defense attorney Wayne Keeney extensively on the case. Whether the AP did their journalistic due diligence or not, this article is a rape myth parading as news.

Rape is a violent crime. One of the surest ways to spot rape myths is the look at what is being said through the lens of a different violent crime. Doing so to the quotes from Mr. Keeney will illustrate my point.

Rape myth number 1: Boys will be boys

. . .any accusations that a sexual assault occurred in the Sacred Heart University dorm were a gross exaggeration of alcohol-fueled hijinks.

No matter how we think boys ought to behave, society gives men, particularly white college men, license to do just about whatever they want. In the context of sexual assault and rape, 'he just got carried away' or 'he was drunk and wasn't thinking straight' are common refrains for perpetrators and those who defend them.

Applying that to say, an aggravated battery, may well be true, but no one would care. So what if you were drunk, you still beat someone, and in this country that is illegal. Imagine a defense for three guys who beat the hell out of somebody saying that assault charges were 'a gross exaggeration of alcohol-fueled hijinks.'

Rape myth number 2: Women lie

"The police report itself is so confusing," Keeney said. "The whole thing just doesn't ring true."

This thinly-veiled statement is suggesting that the victim is lying, that something just doesn't add up. This is meant to play on the fact that despite progress in sex equality over the past several generations, our society still takes a man's word over a woman's.

The truth is that false allegations of sexual assault and rape occur with the same frequency as false allegations about other violent crimes. Here again, a defense attorney for someone charged with a mugging would not say that they plaintiff was lying, they would simply maintain the innocence of their client.

Rape myth number 3: Acquaintance Rape is just a misunderstanding

"I can appreciate that this young woman was put in an embarrassing set of circumstances through some sophomoric, college-boy antics, but there's no indication from what I can see or discern so far that there was any sexual assault there," Keeney said.

This statement again, artfully belittles the charges to be the result of an embarrassing prank taken the wrong way. In other words, what the victim perceived as rape, was really just a misunderstanding of 'sophomoric, college boy antics' (do you see the boys-will-be-boys myth again here?).

The point here is that a woman has a right to security of person. It is she who gets to consent to sex, or withhold that consent, and she can do that, even change her mind, anytime. If you are a woman, imagine that you are having sex and suddenly two men burst into the room. Would you just want to continue? If you don't and he - or they - force you to, that is rape. And for men reading this, what if the victim here was your sister? If she is dating some jerk, and his friends want to come in and join in, doesn't she have the right to stop that? Would you give a damn that she was drunk? Or they were? Even if you disagree with that, the law doesn't, and Mr. Keeney knows it.

A former New York Cop, Ft. Lauderdale Detective, and San Diego Prosecutor, Wayne Keeney has been around the block. Unfortunately his views on sexual assault are completely fictional (not to mention irresponsible).

from his website:

Accusations of sexual abuse are a growing phenomenon in our society. Even consensual sexual encounters between adults all too often result in criminal allegations.

It is estimated that one in six women in the United States will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. The vast majority of those rapes will be committed, not by a stranger jumping out of the bushes, but by a man the woman knows. A whopping 60% of those women will never report the assault. Of those who do, a huge majority of cases go un-prosecuted.

There is a negative feedback loop at play here. Rape myths make it hard to convict rapists. Prosecutors don't like to take rape cases because they are tough to win. Women see that a woman who comes forward is often put on trial (as opposed to the man who raped her) and is reluctant to report. Low prosecutions and low reporting reenforce myths and society's unwillingness to take rape seriously.

Rape is a crime that lives in the dark. We would all like to think of it as a rare and terrible thing. The fact is that an environment reluctant to talk seriously about rape, and recognize women as equal people, is a safe haven for rapists. All-male groups tend to form these environments, and a corresponding concentration of convicted rapists come from their ranks.


Somehow the AP story (and the version I linked to above at Huffington Post) both omit the victim's side of the story. NBC Connecticut has this:

Timothy Sanders, 19, ofAshburn, Virginia and the woman were having consensual sex at the Roncali dorm, when Sanders suddenly summoned the other two men to the room.

Nicholas Travers, 18, of Smithtown, New York, Zachari Triner, 18, of Mansfield, Massachusetts, are accused of sexually assaulting the woman while Sanders held her down.

The victim screamed and fought, police told the Post, and Triner and Travers fled. As the victim sobbed, Sanders asked the student if he could again have sex with her, police told the newspaper.

I am not familiar with the case in question, and I seek only to provide the counter-perspective that the AP failed to include in its article. I applaud the administration at Sacred Heart University for taking this case seriously. Men rape one in four women in college, and it is refreshing to see a university care enough about its student's safety to suspend accused rapists.

If you are a college woman, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act guarantees you equal access to education. If college is a place where men rape 25% of women, that is a civil right violation. Universities must take it as seriously as equality in sports. If your university doesn't, here is where you can report them.

For more information on rape in Connecticut, take a look at this.

If you'd like to call Wayne Keeney and learn why he is spreading the myths that make it easy to get away with rape, his website invites you to call '24 hours a day, 7 days a week' 203-249-8001, 203-335-2080.

The Celt

The Celt is a small, intensely nationalistic pub on Marlborough Street in city center Dublin.  €5.70 will buy you a good Irish coffee.  


The Evening Herald reads like a marriage of Westword and the National Inquirer.


The sign on the door boasting live music every night seems to include a short tape on loop at high volume as 'live'.


My first night in Dublin.  No bag - no card, but fun.  Exactly as I pictured.  Its time to go sleep off the jet lag.

The Colonel

On the plane from Georgia to Paris I sat next to a Colonel in the U.S. Army.  He was going back to Iraq for the third time.  He doesn't support the war, and he doesn't trust his government.  He is going to speak reason and keep his troops away from unnecessary harm.

He has no problem "killing Iraqis."

He crosses himself upon takeoff and landing.

Several of his men were killed by a shot from a pistol under the back of their helmet as they walked through crowded streets.

Why the Public Option is Good for Veterans

This week, Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka succeeded in pushing through a major veterans' health services bill.  According to the committee's press release:

The bill will establish an unprecedented permanent program to train, support, and assist the caregivers of disabled veterans, improve care for veterans in rural areas, reduce veteran homelessness, improve care for women veterans; and, improve VA’s ability to recruit and retain a strong workforce and provide quality assurance at its medical facilities.

This progress is fantastic news for veterans as the bill now goes on to be considered by the House of Representatives.

There is another initiative in congress that also has the potential to do amazing things for America's veterans, and their families: the public option in the health care reform bill.

Rick Reyes, a former Infantryman in the U.S. Marine Corps, said that his young daughter used to be covered by his military health care, but now that he is a civilian again, he can't get his VA care extended to cover her.  Veterans across the country are struggling to find and pay for private insurance for their loved ones, but premiums have risen so high, many can't afford it.

Unlike Reyes, many veterans don't have VA health care for themselves either.  In 2006 there were anestimated 24.4 million veterans in the United States, and 16.9 million of those, a whopping 69% of veterans received no VA health care.  With unemployment at is highest levels in decades, a huge number of veterans can't rely on employer provided health care either.  Even vets who can afford their own insurance are increasingly denied coverage for 'preexisting conditions, like those they developed in the service of their country.

The bottom line is that many veterans are finding that they and their families are unable to go to the doctor - until they are bad enough to go to the emergency room.

This situation is clearly unacceptable for a nation that claims to honor its men and women in uniform.  The public option is the most comprehensive and plausible way to address this shameful state of affairs that congress has considered in decades.   People who claim to care about the way we treat veterans, and veterans themselves, have much to gain from a public option for health care.

So if you are a vet or a supporter of our veterans, lend your voice to the effort to pass a robust public option.  Visit Public Option Please, and let your members of congress know how you feel.  Stay in the loop by becoming a fan of their Facebook group, and spread the word to fellow veterans and their allies.

Veterans have put their lives on the line for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.    Their families have made huge sacrifices for the same.  If anyone has earned the right to see a doctor, they have.  Show your support for them, and support a public option.

What The GITMO Debate Should Look Like

Friday the 13th has a reputation for being the scariest of day-of-the-week/date combinations. The Obama administration selected last Friday (the 13th of November) to announce its intention to bring 5 alleged terrorists who planned 9/11 to trial in federal court 'at the scene of the crime' in NYC. If you've seen any Republican talking heads over the past few days, or gone through the Fox News haunted house, you have heard how truly scary they think you should think this is.

There was another related event on Friday that has received much less attention. The New York Times ran an installment of its series 'Room for Debate' on the topic of the best way to try terrorists. The debate is between Jim Benjamin, a former federal prosecutor who thinks our courts are up to the task of trying alleged terrorists and Glenn Sulmasy, an national security expert, who believes alleged terrorists should not be given the same constitutional protections as American citizens and advocates creating a new 'national security court'.

Though they concern the same topic, what to do with prisoners in GITMO, the difference in these two Friday the 13th conversations is remarkable. One of them is meant to stoke fears and prevent a rational examination of facts, and the other is an intelligent and well-reasoned debate on a complex legal issue.

It is a great example of two things: #1 what a good, rational debate on this issue looks like. You won't find fear-mongering here, but you will find a counter-proposal that doesn't offend rational thinking. To wit - this is Glenn Sulmsay, the national security expert:

The Qaeda fighter is a hybrid — a mix of international criminal and warrior. The conflict we are engaging in is a hybrid — a mix of law enforcement and warfare. Since we are fighting hybrid warriors in a hybrid war, it seems logical that policy makers strongly consider the creation of a hybrid court: a national security court.

#2, this argument (and its crazier cousins) is built upon the mistaken presumption that if you grant alleged terrorists the same constitutional protections enjoyed by citizens of the USofA, they will be acquitted and go on to commit terrorist acts. It sounds reasonable enough, but there is 20 years worth of evidence to the contrary.

In the words of Jim Benjamin, the experienced former federal prosector, and co-author of the Human Rights First 'In Pursuit of Justice' Reports:

In the years since 9/11 the Justice Department has brought 119 federal court terrorism cases against 289 defendants, with a conviction rate of 91.1 percent. Although it would be naive to suggest that the 9/11 prosecutions will be simple or straightforward, there is good reason to believe that dedicated federal judges, working with prosecutors and defense counsels, can address and overcome the challenges that these prosecutions are certain to present.

Here is the full debate and it is well worth a read.

My take is that we have held people at GITMO for the better part of a decade, denying them the rights that a civil society extends to all people regardless of their crime. To paraphrase one of my favorite U2 songs, we have become a monster so the monster would not break us.

But we have never needed to. The record is clear that our courts are capable of handling international criminals like terrorists. GITMO, like Abu Ghraib before it (and Bagram to come after), is of no value to American national security, and serves a recruiting tool for the terrorists we seek to defeat.

If you agree with me, join the courageous folks at Human Rights First who are working to close GITMO, and finally put the legal, human rights, morass that the Bush Administration began, behind us. Sign the petition, and join them on Facebook. If you want to do something more, join their 'task force' and help them organize the campaign.

It is time for America to wake up and realize that the rights we grant ourselves are the legal embodiment of our aspiration for all people. Adhering to our values, particularly in the face of a new national security threat, will undercut the terrorist cause, and position the United States as the strong moral leader we strive to be.

Whatever your opinion, on how we should bring alleged terrorists to justice, I hope we can all see fear mongering for what it is, and keep this debate to the critical question that faces our nation. The world is watching.