Memory Alpha, the wiki-driven yet authoritative compendium of Star Trek lore, defines the insidious condition known as the temporal causality loop:
A temporal causality loop (or simply temporal loop) is a special condition of time, in which time runs for a certain period, then resets itself to a point back in time, after which the events play out over again. However, afterimages of previous loops can be found to have effect on the dekyon field. This causes humanoid lifeforms to experience déjà vu.
So now we have a description of the condition of repeated experience. Of course, it's possible that not everyone will hold with the above reason for this recursivity - you know, the whole "effect on the dekyon field" thing. Those people will likely find a more convincing explanation in the following self-referential statement:
Warning: Self-referential statements can lead to paradoxes. More importantly, self-blame (as in calling oneself stoopid), while oddly satisfying on some level, can cloud one's analysis of a recursive situation. In the end, it's understanding you want, not recriminations. You just want to why you're repeating mistakes you made last month, or last year; why you're relearning life lessons you thought you had pretty well incorporated; why your new boyfriend looks and acts suspiciously like your last three husbands.
If you go back to the Star Trek model of a temporal loop and view it as metaphor rather than plot device, you might equate "afterimages of previous loops" with static (more or less) memory, and "the dekyon field" with active (more or less) consciousness. The interaction might give rise to not merely déjà vu, but to a more persistent replication of pattern or rhythm (in the dekyon field!) that we might call habit.
If the cause has been correctly identified, what of the solution? In the ST:TNG episode referred to above, a distortion of the dekyon field would do the trick - a message or warning deliberately (consciously) recorded in the past for future decoding and analysis.
It's possible - though not necessarily supported by the Star Trek canon - that the conscious intent or deliberation could take place on the back end of this exchange: that is, in the future (the present to you), looking back. Perhaps both scenarios are taking place at once, with conscious intent taking place on both of the exchange. Maybe it's actually the same intent, assuming - as some heretics do - that all time is one. It's food for thought, to be sure.
The upshot is that we somehow have to remember - which is actually not that hard. We certainly remember our mistakes well enough to be prickly and defensive about them, so it's hardly a matter of forgetting (as I had first assumed when I started writing this post).
Rather, it's a matter of acting on that memory. This is where we tearfully diverge from our Star Trek model, for while it's apparently automatic for the android Data to choose the correct course of action having realized that his previous recursive efforts were futile...we organic types are a little more stubborn about repeating our mistakes.
At least, I've found that to be the case.
Well.
Thus endeth the light treatise on recursivity this morning. I gotta go recharge my dekyon field or something.
(Cross-posted, because all space is also one. Whoa!)
Blogenfreude at Agitprop checking in with the outrage of the day. Just when I was settling in for another Vitter hooker revelation (now with real hookers!), I come across yet another WTF.
Do you know how some right wing patriots will be celebrating the deaths of thousands of their fellow citizens? That's right—a country music concert featuring Sean Hannity! But it gets worse:
First, [Hannity will] host his daily WABC (770 AM) show at the park, 3-6 p.m., then he starts the concert, a wildly popular event that also features music by Lee Greenwood and LeAnn Rimes between remarks by Oliver North, Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Ann Coulter, Jon Voight, Newt Gingrich, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and WABC hosts Mark Levin, Curtis Sliwa and Bob Grant.
Tom Lehrer once remarked that irony died when Henry Kissinger got the Nobel Peace Prize. If it didn't, this gathering of authoritarians and warmongers, getting off on what should be a day for sober reflection, surely kills it off for good.
"The enemy is not standing still. They are constantly revising their tactics and adapting their strategy and their capabilities," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "And if we stand still — or worse yet, if we retreat — we are going to be handing them an advantage that we dare not see them hold."
He said the threat of a USS Cole-type attack on U.S. ports — where a small boat packed with explosives detonates in a harbor — is one of his top concerns.
And while the department's goal is to keep nuclear weapons from entering the country, he said it also is focusing on how it would respond should a nuclear device get through and explode — particularly how to identify and track the nuclear materials.
Ha! For a moment there, I thought the Department of Homeland Security was actually focusing on how it would respond to the human crisis and infrastructural catastrophe. But…no. Just how it will gather evidence to start another war.
[Petulant passed on this story to me with the note: "I thought you would like to know that we are going to die! Nice knowing ya!"]
McClatchy says the general's testimony may have been as important for what wasn't said as for what was:
A chart displayed by Army Gen. David Petraeus that purported to show the decline in sectarian violence in Baghdad between December and August made no effort to show that the ethnic character of many of the neighborhoods had changed in that same period from majority Sunni Muslim or mixed to majority Shiite Muslim.
Neither Petraeus nor U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker talked about the fact that since the troop surge began the pace by which Iraqis were abandoning their homes in search of safety had increased. They didn't mention that 86 percent of Iraqis who've fled their homes said they'd been targeted because of their sect, according to the International Organization for Migration.
While Petraeus stressed that civilian casualties were down over the last five weeks, he drew no connection between that statement and a chart he displayed that showed that the number of attacks rose during at least one of those weeks.
Petraeus also didn't highlight the fact that his charts showed that "ethno-sectarian" deaths in August, down from July, were still higher than in June, and he didn't explain why the greatest drop in such deaths, which peaked in December, occurred between January and February, before the surge began.
And while both officials said that the Iraqi security forces were improving, neither talked about how those forces had been infiltrated by militias, though Petraeus acknowledged that during 2006 some Iraqi security forces had participated in the ethnic violence.
Both officials said they believed that Iraq was on the path to potential success. Petraeus said that "the military objectives of the surge are, in large measure, being met." Crocker was similarly optimistic: "In my judgment, the cumulative trajectory of political, economic and diplomatic developments in Iraq is upwards, although the slope of that line is not steep."
They both pleaded for more time…
Of course they did. Because more time is all that matters, now that the gossamer promise of a blooming democracy in Iraq will so clearly be left unfulfilled.
More time. More blood. More lives. Just give us more. One more chance…
Our war strategy has all the sophistication of a Vaudevillian sight gag; it's just Buster Keaton giving chase to his porkpie hat as he himself kicks it down the road.
The true crime is that the man who caused this is still alive and free, and the people most responsible for the effort to capture him and bring him to justice don't really care.
Writing about the Bryan case below reminded me of Anita Bryant, who in the mid-1970's scared the bejesus out of Florida with her anti-gay campaign in Dade County. During the campaign, an article in Newsweek ran a profile of the former beauty pageant maven, including the tidbit of news that, because of the backlash against her from the sizable gay community here, she had her security guards refuse to allow "unmarried men" to approach or interview her. I wrote a letter to the editor of Newsweek saying that if Jesus Christ came back, he'd have trouble getting through her gate: he wasn't married, either. They published the letter...and the seeds of my career as a blogger were planted.
So the question is: What was your first act of public advocacy?
Rove's longtime deputy Barry Jackson … is seen as cool, analytical and fiercely partisan—"none of this 'let's get along' kind of stuff," in the words of one GOP acquaintance from Capitol Hill, who described Jackson "as the man behind The Man."
So, I guess he's a uniter, too.
In other news: President Seen as Stupid Douche, Vice President a Six Million Dollar Mandroid, and America Still Being Held Hostage by Collection of Democracy-Hating Shitbags.
No one will really know what led St. Petersburg City Council Chairman John Bryan to commit suicide last week, but the likelihood that it was related to this story in the St. Petersburg Times is pretty good.
Bryan's suicide came after news spread Friday that authorities were investigating allegations that he had sexually abused three girls, including two of his adopted daughters, ages 12 and 15. Ron Stuart, a spokesman for the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, said the third alleged victim was a nanny for Bryan years ago and no longer lives in the area.
[...]
Around midmorning Friday, Bryan attended a shelter hearing in front of Circuit Judge Raymond Gross at the criminal court complex in Largo. Such hearings determine who has custody of children while authorities investigate abuse allegations.
The hearing was brief, according to court spokesman Stuart. St. Petersburg police had opened a criminal investigation into Bryan.
Authorities were investigating allegations that Bryan had sexually abused two of his adopted daughters, Stuart said. The Times is withholding their names because of the nature of the allegations.
In addition, authorities were investigating whether Bryan had sexually abused his former nanny, whom he had also adopted. The former nanny is now 38.
Stuart said Bryan admitted to a sexual relationship with the nanny, but said it was consensual and occurred after the nanny turned 18. "He claims she was of age," Stuart said Friday afternoon.
Judge Gross ordered Bryan to have no contact with the children, Stuart said. Gross allowed the children to remain at home with their mother, Alicia Bryan.
"Mr. Bryan agreed to this," Stuart said.
If that isn't enough to creep you out, this may take care of that.
Friends and colleagues of City Councilman John Bryan were shocked by sex abuse allegations that led to his suicide.
But not everyone was surprised.
Stories about Bryan's sexual indiscretions had been circulating for nearly two decades.
"I heard the rumors, but you never know if someone's out to get him or no," said Bill Dudley, who was in the Northeast Exchange Club with Bryan. "So I never paid much attention to them. You have to take rumors at face value."
Just as stunning as the rumors, perhaps, is that many of Bryan's closest associates say they never heard them.
Mayor Rick Baker said he didn't know of them.
Current police Chief Chuck Harmon and former police Chief Goliath Davis both said Saturday that they never heard any questions about Bryan's past.
"I wasn't made aware of any type of allegation against Mr. Bryan until this week," Harmon said.
Those who did hear them include Jerry Knight, St. Petersburg's one-time fire chief. He said he couldn't substantiate the rumors.
"I don't know that anybody knows," he said Saturday. "That's the whole issue."
Daniel Price, 77, who was part of a luncheon group with Bryan, also said he heard the gossip.
"The stories about Bryan flouting around with little girls have been abroad in the land for 15 years," Price said.
Nearly two decades. To quote Melissa (who tipped me off to this story via blogenfreude, who got it from Wonkette): "WTF??"
Gossip and rumors can be destructive and wildly at odds with reality, but there is usually a grain of truth in a rumor - just ask Larry Craig or Ted Haggard -- and if anyone actually knew the truth in spite of the denials why the hell didn't they do something? Was Mr. Bryan such a staunch Republican and defender of family values that either they didn't believe it, or were afraid to cross him? Or worse, was it because they just didn't want to get involved?
Well, obviously someone did something or else Mr. Bryan would not have spent that Friday morning in court being told to stay away from his adopted children (which makes you wonder why he adopted them in the first place). But the very idea that people were covering for him by either ignoring the rumors or actively covering for him is beyond understanding and, to me, it borders on the legal definition of depraved indifference.
What's even more ironic is that Florida is so very concerned about the welfare of children that it has a ban on gay people adopting children. It doesn't matter if you're the most moral upstanding person in the Sunshine State, if you're queer you're automatically disqualified because everyone knows that queers molest children. It's how we recruit them. But if you're a straight... hey, no problem.
I'm sorry that Mr. Bryan felt that the only way out was to kill himself, but I feel a lot more sorry for the children whose lives he damaged. For the people that ignored it and the state that still enforces medieval stereotypes about "family values," all I have is cold rage.
"We’re spilling blood and treasure to give Iraqis time—not to create some kind of political reconciliation, but so they can 'reflect' on the kind of country they want? Please. Even Bush administration officials should be able to come up with something better than this."—Steve Benen, as part of an excellent (and highly recommended) post on the Magical Mystery Withdrawal Plan.
[Related reading on Petraeus' PowerPoint of the Damned: John Cole.]
Jane Wyman, who won the Oscar for her role as a deaf rape victim in Johnny Belinda and stared as Angela Channing in the bosom-heaving melodrama Falcon Crest, died today. She was in her 90s.
She'll always be the broad who had the sense to dump Ronnie Reagan off on Nancy to me.
Although the President Bush described in this volume will be familiar to most readers, Mr. Draper colors in the outlines with lots of tiny details. Apparently Mr. Bush loves doing imitations of Dr. Evil from the “Austin Powers” movies.
I guess that would explain the following excerpt where the Prez talks about growing up in the Bush household.
My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really. At the age of 12 I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.
Thompson climbs in GOP poll: "Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson has gotten a modest bump in support after finally announcing he's running for the Republican presidential nomination, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. … He ranks second at 22%, up 3 points since August and his strongest showing since his name was added to the list of contenders in March."
Hmm. Well, wonder if that trend will continue once the Republican base gets a whiff of this:
Thompson Provided Legal Counsel for Pan Am 103 Bombers: "The New York Times reports that billing records from the early 1990's show that Thompson gave advice to a colleague who was working on behalf of two Libyan intelligence officials implicated in the infamous Pan Am Flight 103 bombing in 1988, which killed 270 people. … One of the two suspects, Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, was later convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison in Scotland."
That would be during the same period that Thompson was also lobbying on behalf of an abortion rights group.
Reproductive freedom...giving suspected terrorists access to legal counsel...damn! He sounds positively liberal! (At least by the standards of the American fascists calling themselves "conservatives" these days...)
Carl's Jr/Hardee's has a new commercial for its new patty melt burger, which is served on "flat buns." The commercial, which features a sexy female teacher dancing on her desk for the gratification of male students who serenade her "flat buns," has caused a ruckus among educators, who object to the sexual objectification of and general disrespect for the teacher in the advert:
Brad Haley, the executive VP for marketing for Hardee's, says the ad isn't meant to be taken literally and that it was designed to be funny. He also claims the premise is "really over the top." Which, if nothing else, suggests that Mr. Haley hasn't read a newspaper in the last decade that included one of about half a dozen different national stories about female teachers seducing their students (or any of the dozens of stories of male teachers seducing their students which never seem to get nearly the same amount of attention—gee), and reveals further that Mr. Haley never been a first-year female high school teacher standing in front of a class that includes young men sometimes only four years younger.
Wrestling for control of a classroom can be a difficult proposition for any teacher, even veteran teachers, male and female. Sometimes there are just classes that suck; Mama Shakes politely referred to them as her "problem classes," and Papa Shakes was slightly less charitable. But there are unique problems for young female teachers in a high school environment, particularly in school districts (of which there are far too many) where women teachers are not particularly respected or supported by the administration. A young woman who reports to a good ol' boy principal whose response to her being sexually harassed by her own male students is "Boys will be boys" is not remotely uncommon enough for Mr. Haley to claim the premise of this commercial is "really over the top."
And, beyond that, do teenage boys really need any more encouragement to consider every woman presented to them—including their teachers—an object for their sexual gratification? Honestly, the precise attitude underlying this crappy advert makes a detrimental difference to women's lives every fucking day, but who cares if we exploit it, as long as we sell a few hamburgers.
The new campaign advertising the return of the television series Desperate Housewives (which, fyi, I've never seen) is irritating the crap out of me. The centerpiece of the campaign has the five vixens strolling out of a wall of flame in blue gowns, and I know you'll just be shocked and amazed to find out that the images of the female stars have been airbrushed so wantonly that the result is laughable.
[Click to enlarge.]
It goes without saying that their bodies have been slimmed; of course they have, and Eva Longoria's famous curves have all but vanished. But the real joke here is neck-up:
Ages, l-r: Marcia Cross, 45; Nicollette Sheridan, 44 (in Nov); Teri Hatcher, 43 (in Dec); Eva Longoria, 32; Felicity Huffman, 45 (in Dec).
Excluding, naturally, Eva Longoria, who's more than a decade younger than the closest in age, the Desperate Housewives are not allowed to be publicly, shamelessly women in their forties. Like Glamour choosing a plus-size woman for its cover only to make her smaller, the producers of DW have made the rare and wonderful decision to center a show around women who are old enough to vote, drink, rent a car, and legally fuck men (or women) half their age, but then won't let those women appear to be the ages they are.
I, however, will:
Marcia Cross at the BlackBerry Curve Party in June.
Nicollette Sheridan at some signing recently.
Teri celebrating Felicity Huffman's new book in Feb.
Felicity Huffman on the red carpet recently.
Those are beautiful women, all of whom look in real life like they're in their forties. Their faces have lines. Those lines mean a lived life. They mean experience—and wisdom among the best of us. They communicate something lovely and strong, and there are a hell of a lot of people who find them sexy.
Anyway, blah blah. Same old story. It's no wonder American women are so fucked up about their looks and about aging.
[In the middle of writing this post, Shaker Kate forwarded me this article, which has more information on the Desperately Airbrushed campaign. Thanks, Kate!]
LOS ANGELES (AP) The Emmys Awards got edgy as an off-color "Saturday Night Live" video featuring Justin Timberlake and strategically placed gift boxes was honored at the creative arts ceremony.
[...]
"I think it's safe to say that when we first set out to make this song, we were all thinking 'Emmy!'" Samberg said in accepting the award Saturday for best original music and lyrics.
"The other thing we were thinking was, 'Hey! Here's this young up and comer, Justin Timberlake, who is clearly very talented and could clearly use a break,'" Samberg said. "So, Justin, if you're out there, congrats to you, kid.'"
[...]
As Samberg arrived at the creative arts awards, he told The Associated Press that he had yet to be asked by the TV academy to perform the song with Timberlake on the Fox broadcast — but he was willing, he said.
Welcome to Shakesville, a progressive feminist blog about politics, culture, social justice, cute things, and all that is in between. Please note that the commenting policy and the Feminism 101 section, conveniently linked at the top of the page, are required reading before commenting.
As fans of ST:TNG can attest, temporal loops can lead to repeated collisions with starships captained by Kelsey Grammer, which can simply ruin any humanoid lifeform's day. 
Warning: Self-referential statements can lead to paradoxes. More importantly, self-blame (as in calling oneself stoopid), while oddly satisfying on some level, can cloud one's analysis of a recursive situation. In the end, it's understanding you want, not recriminations. You just want to why you're repeating mistakes you made last month, or last year; why you're relearning life lessons you thought you had pretty well incorporated; why your new boyfriend looks and acts suspiciously like your last three husbands. 
If the cause has been correctly identified, what of the solution? In the ST:TNG episode referred to above, a distortion of the dekyon field would do the trick - a message or warning deliberately (consciously) recorded in the past for future decoding and analysis. 
Do you know how some right wing patriots will be celebrating the deaths of thousands of their fellow citizens? That's right—a country music concert featuring Sean Hannity! But 
