Month: November 2009

You need to read this, and then forward the information to as many people as you can.

This story reveals just how far this country has fallen, and its being downplayed by the corporate media (the New York Times, for example, buried it in their “US News” section (not the front page, and not even the lead in US News).

Short version:

Maher Arar, a Canadian/Syrian citizen, was detained while returning home during a layover at JFK. He was held for two weeks incommunicado, without access to counsel, and then “rendered” to Syria, where he was tortured for 10 months. He was innocent — never once involved in any terrorist act or group. Everyone involved now admits that.

Canada publicly apologized for their role in these events, and paid Arar $9 million in restitutions, publishing a statement that concluded that Arar was completely and categorically innocent.

The US, of course, has never admitted any wrongdoing, and has insisted that courts were barred from examining the case because it involved “state secrets.”

Yesterday, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Arar’s civil case against the US, saying that even if the government violated Arar’s rights as well as laws that ban participation in torture, he still has no right to sue for what was done to him, because “providing a damages remedy against senior officials who implement an extraordinary rendition policy would enmesh the courts ineluctably in an assessment of the validity of the rationale of that policy and its implementation in this particular case, matters that directly affect significant diplomatic and national security concerns.”

In other words — even if they’re guilty of wrongdoing, too bad.

It gets much worse. Read the linked article.

Spread this around. We’ve got to pull this country back from the pit that the last administration drove us into — and that the current administration seems too timid to address.

This just arrived on my doorstep.

Shipped from Amazon, but with no insert — so no indication of who sent it.

So, I’ll take this opportunity to say “Thank You” to whoever decided to send it my way (and if you feel like identifying yourself, feel free to comment below, or drop me an email)!

Questions from :

1. I have a dim recollection of your mentioning other theater work beyond the RF. Can we have a brief CV and an inkling of whether it’s something you’ll pursue more actively in your copious spare time?

I briefly did some professional stage work in my early college years (paid to perform! What a concept!). I did some Shakespeare here and there, and was a member of a touring children’s theater company when I lived in Atlanta in the late 80s. Since that time, my thespian work has been limited to occasional forays into community theatre and RenFest performances.

I do occasionally get the jones to do more stage work, although your sarcastic mention of “copious spare time” is spot-on: I haven’t really got the amount of time that such an outlet would require — especially since, in my experience, doing even a community production tends to turn into “The Activity That Ate My Life.”

But who knows — never say never.

2. Another member of our fraternity recently lamented that missing out on RPG sessions was good for work productivity but bad for mental health. How helpful do you find it to be in an active game group when you’re designing?

Actually, I find that I need an active group — but I don’t want to do anything remotely work-related with it. I want it to be recreation, and specifically to remind me why I love gaming (why I got into all of this in the first place). I don’t want to have “work brain” creep into it any more than it would naturally — so I’d prefer to play something unrelated to anything I’m doing work-wise. If I don’t have an active group, the myriad aggravations of working in this business start to pile up, with no “plus side” working against them. Not a good thing.

3. Apart from Monk and Ham, who is the best of the Fabulous Five?

Johnny (William Harper Littlejohn) — Because, like Indy, he’s an archaeologist. Plus, he gets to say things like “I’ll be superamalgamated!” — outside of Monk and Ham, he’s the one with the biggest “hook” as a character. Long Tom and Renny tend to blend into the background for me.

Although, were we to expand the Five to Six, I’d go with Pat Savage in a heartbeat.

4. What is your greatest domestic talent (i.e., cooking, repair, and so on)?

Cooking, without a doubt. I’m a foodie, and I’m pretty damned good, too. Very occasionally, I’ll post a recipe here on LJ (like my recipe for Carne Adovada which I posted in June) — I should probably do that more often.

5. And, since you asked me, what is your dream creative project, assuming a green light?

Well, by “green light” I meant “budget and approval taken care of by whatever Powers That Be” — I’m sort of my own PTB, so I get to go forward with pretty much whatever I really want to… That said, in the spirit of the question, I’ll say that the dream would be for a windfall budget to launch a full-time, commercial, webseries operation. (I’m launching FAR WEST very soon, but having buckets of money to throw at it would be even better.)