You are currently browsing the daily archive for July 16th, 2008.
We’ve got twelve planets now. Everyone give a big round of applause to the newest member of the Solar Club, Makemake!
Makemake is currently visually the second brightest Kuiper belt object after Pluto, having a March opposition apparent magnitude of about 16.7 in the constellation Coma Berenices. This is bright enough to be visible using a high-end amateur telescope. Makemake’s high albedo of roughly 80 percent suggests an average surface temperature of roughly 30 K. The size of Makemake is not precisely known, but the detection in infrared by the Spitzer space telescope, combined with the similarities of spectrum with Pluto yielded an estimate of a 1,500+400−200 km diameter.[3] This is slightly larger than the size of 2003 EL making Makemake the third largest known Trans-Neptunian object after Eris and Pluto. Makemake is now designated the fourth dwarf planet in the Solar System since it has a bright absolute magnitude of −0.48[2] guaranteeing that it is large enough to achieve hydrostatic equilibrium.
I am not, generally, a political guy. Sure, I love following electoral politics. I love the game, the power plays, the movements and the feints. It’s the best damn chess game. I’m generally interested in systems and in how people work within and respond to systems, to the point that, when working on a science-fiction story a while back, I was far more interested in the structure, policies, and bylaws of the interstellar organization featured therein than I was in the characters (who were pretty weak to begin with). For the same reason, I follow the creation of new states with vigor; when Kosovo proclaimed its independence, I immediately thought “It’ll be great to see how the UN responds, and how its organs of government will assert themselves!”
It’s one of my less interesting interests.
I love politics, but I’m not personally political. I don’t endorse either party. I’m neither conservative nor liberal (I’m communitarian), and I find the whole system, at least here in the US, profoundly broken. A lot of that has to do with my religious bent, and the recognition that both parties, all politicians, base their whole careers on ushering in the kingdom of God, honeyed words promising future utopias, with ideologies often entirely, and usually partly, opposed to the Gospel. All American ideologies today are centered on the idea that we, of ourselves, with good old American know-how and an indefatiguable faith in ourselves and our country, can end poverty, bring peace to the world, and begin an age of endless prosperity and happiness — the Good Times — akin to what we assume our forebears must have had.
Tied intimately to these strange visions of impossible worlds are the activists. Now, I don’t believe in activism. Activism is agitation based on the idea that the government can save the world, when it is, in fact, only Christ who can do that. Make Poverty History? Christ tells us that the poor will be with us always, and that the wealthy, the capable, have an obligation to care for those who need it. Even something as basic as a voter registration drive assumes that change can only come through electoral politics, through the system we’ve established, rather than through conversion of the heart. Anti-abortion rallies assume the same thing.
Now I come across a group, approved to protest the Democratic National Convention in August, called “Recreate’68.” Now, I myself was only born in 1984, but I know full well what happened in 1968. It was a violent protest, a riot, that ripped Chicago apart. Considering the extent to which our culture idealizes the sixties, I’m still surprised they have chosen that as the year to emulate. And, considering their platform, it seems the only thing they want to share with 1968 is the very fact of protest.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out what Recreate’68 is trying to accomplish. Looks to me like they only thing they’re for is…protesting. Look at their statement of principles.
1. To publicly support rights of free speech, the right to organize, and the right to dissent for all.
2. To maintain solidarity with, and respect the guidelines of, all permitted activities, recognizing that there are many individuals who seek a safe and peaceful protest.
3. To support and participate in efforts to assure civil liberties for everyone in Denver, including the right to organize civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action without that organizing being criminalized or disrupted.
4. To speak out against any preemptive arrests, raids on activists spaces, or attacks on independent journalists and other media.
5. To be conscious of and speak out against police targeting and differential treatment of people based on race, gender, sexual orientation, accent, or appearance.
6. Not to turn people over to the police, or share information with the police about other groups.
7. Not to publicly criticize the tactics used by other parts of our movement or cooperate with media efforts to be divisive or portray good protester/bad protester.
8. To publicly condemn police repression and brutality
9. To be conscious that if violence or property destruction does occur, we will do what we can to help prevent it from being blown out of proportion and dominating the media coverage.
10. To remember that, when all is said and done, our greatest victory will be an activist community with a renewed sense of strength and unity.
I don’t see a clear goal in there. Have we become so politicized that we’re protesting for the sake of protesting? Sure, they want to end the war. But — they’re protesting at the DNC! The Democrats are already on board with that.
Incredible.
