text:
He begins with the question "Is God Violent?". McLaren acknowledges that, as useful as his 'Bible as cultural library' proves to be for him, it just doesn't do away with all of what he considers disturbing images of God. "But as a serious reader of the Bible, I'm still a little uneasy, because I know about some of the other images of God that are also found in the Bible--violent images, cruel images, un-Christlike images", p 98.
What he posits to answer this is a form of 'progressive revelation', or as he called it, "this evolving understanding of God", p 100. He says there are five ways that the Bible shows such an 'evolving understand--God uniqueness, from a God supreme among many gods to one true God; God's ethics, from ritual and cermony to social justice; God's universality, from a tribal God to one who loves all people; God's agency, from a distant God to one close and involved; and God's character, from a violent God to one who is gentle, pp 100-102.
He claims that this isn't an evolution of God himself, but of how people understood God. "I am not saying that the Bible reveals a process of evolution within God's character, as if God used to be rather adolescent, but has taken a turn for the better and is growing up nicely over the last few centuries. I am saying that human beings can't do better than their very best at any given moment to communicate about God as they understand God, and the Scripture faithfully reveals the evolution of our ancestor's best attempts to communicate their successive best understandings of God...If we read the Bible as a cultural library rather than as a constitution, and if we don't impose a Greco-Roman plotline on the biblical narrative, we are free to learn from the evolutionary process--and, we might even add, to participate in it", p 103.
He likens it to math. Students in early grades learn simple math, and as they advace, they learn more complex forms of math, onesthat may even seem to contradict what they had previously learned. So, those early in the Bible who recorded what he considers less-mature images of God were simply understanding God as best they could, as a second-grader understands math in only a limited sense. But people like McLaren are more advanced. To make his point, McLaren uses one of his favority tactics--a series of unanswerable "What if...?", questions, p 104-105.
As if to show us what that is like, McLaren gives another example--people from today are somehow sent a bit over 1000 years into the future. People in this speculative future are some different from us, they are "deeply spiritual", they have "grown socially", they no longer fight wars, eat meat, or use fossil fuels, p 106. When those from today arrive, the people of the future are horrified that people used to fight wars and pray for God to bless them in doing so, eat their "fellow creatures" and even view vegetarianism as being 'pro-life', and thought it ok to ruin the planet by using oil.
People who don't like this way of thinking are, of course, stuck in the old Greco-Roman and constitutional way of viewing the Bible, p 108.
McLaren focuses on the story of Noah. Instead of seeing it as God saving a man and his family, he focuses instead on God practicing "ethnic cleansing", p 108, and a story in which people may find justification for similar destructions. "In this light, a god who mandates an intentional supernatural disaster leading to unparalleled genocide is hardly worth belief, much less worship", p 109. He even points out that the flood was a failure, as Noah and his sons soon enough start sinning and soon the world is a mess again.
He does say that, while for him the story of Noah is now distasteful, it is still a step up from what he considers to be the origin source of the story of Noah, something in Gilgamesh, where the gods kill mankind because man is too noisy for them to sleep.
"This approach helps us see the biblical library as the record of a seris of trade-ups, people courageously letting go of their state-of-the-art understanding of God when an even better understanding begins to emerge", p 111.
When coming to Jesus, McLaren quotes a Quaker scholar named Elton Trueblood, "The historic Christian doctrine of the divinity of Christ does not simply mean that Jesus is like God. It is far more radical than that. It means the God is like Jesus", p 114. Jesus, then, "...bring us to a new evolutionary level in our understanding of God. An old definition of God does not define Jesus--the experience of God in Jesus requires a brand-new definition or understanding of God", p 114.
"The character of God, seen in Jesus, is not violent and tribal. The living God is not the kind of deity who decrees ethnic cleansing, genocide, racism, slavery, sexism, homophobia, war, religious supremacy, or eternal conscious torment. Instead, the character of the living God is like the character of Jesus", p 118.
My thoughts on this.
A few years ago, I heard someone talk about "chronological snobbery", which essentially means that a person or people will look back on those before them as having been rather stupid. Maybe they will try to say nice things about those ancients, saying they did the best with what they had, but we today know so much more and know it so much better.
Essentially, McLaren's whole position here is an astonishingly towering tribute to chronological snobbery. The arrogance emerging from this part of the book is almost more than I can imagine.
About a year ago, I read parts of a book called "The Lost Message of Jesus" by a couple of emergents on the other side of the pond, Chalke and Mann. They say this about God in the Old Testament.
Hence, Yahweh's association with vengeance and violence wasn't so much an expression of who he was but the result of his determination to be involved with his world. His unwillingness to distance himself from the people of Israel and their actions meant that at times he was implicated in the excessive acts of war that we see in some of the books of the Old Testament. From the very beginning, Yahweh's dealing with Israel were motivated by his desire to demonstrate his love. But to a people saturated in a worldview that saw him as power, this was always going to be a slow uphill struggle
God's relationship with Israel took place in the messy and often brutal reality of their day-to-day lives, longings and ambitions. And in the ancient Near East, where war and unrestrained violence were commonplace, having a god of power on your side helped justify cruel acts of revenge towards those who wronged you. That is why, if we focus in on individual Old Testament verses and stories, it is easy to fall into the trap of seeing God as a vengeful despot...
Chalk and Mann, the lost message of jesus, p. 49
I called this god of Chalke's and Mann's "the incompetent god", because he was unable to get his real message across to humanity; for example, he was pacifistic, but kept having to send Israel off to war, because he was unable through his divine power to protect them.
McLaren essentially uses "the incompetent god", and adds a bit to it. For unspecified reasons, God cannot make ancient man understand Him, so He's doomed to have his character misrepresented in Scripture, at least until McLaren and other enlightened ones come along to set the record straight.
One of the most distasteful parts of his argument is positing a sort of conflict between God and Jesus. He claims that there are images of God in the Old Testament that were "un-Christlike". He says that we must compare views of God to Jesus, "The images of God that most resemble Jesus, whether they orginate in the Bible or elsewhere, are the more mature and complete images; the ones less similar to the character of Jesus are the more embryonic and incomplete...", p 114. As the quote states, he thinks that one can find 'images of God' outside the Bible, I suppose in other religions, that are better than some one can find in the Bible itself.
I noted before that McLaren seems to put a lot of the Bible on to the fiction shelves of his 'cultural library', and this is more confirmation of that. He pretty blatantly says that Noah is a made-up story, ripped off from another culture. More than that, he strongly implies that almost all of it was somehow made-up--it's a man-made book, not a divine revelation. It's a book of mankind's continual evolution in the understanding of God, and that evolution is still going on, an evolution was can still participate in today.
If McLaren's god didn't destroy the world in Noah's day, what does that do to other times that the Bible records God speaking? Does God not judge Sodom and Gomorrah, because that would be homophobic? What about what God did to Egypt? Did God really tell Israel to conquer Canaan, or was that just Moses and Joshua using god-language in support of their own agenda of conquest? And what about those prophets and all their dire warnings and predictions, did God really tell them to say those things?
In order for McLaren to hold to his positions, he must say that much of the Bible claims to have been spoken by God was not really God speaking. His continual emphasis on "an evolving understanding of God" makes that point as well, and is essentially saying that much of the Bible is simply made-up stories where a character called God is introduced, words put into his mouth, and those words given status as Scripture.
There is someone at the Christianity.com forums where I participate in discussions, who has a quote by Spurgeon in her signature area, which goes something like this: "It is a remarkable fact that all the heresies which have arisen in the Christian Church have had a decided tendency to 'dishonor God and to flatter man." As this seems a reasonable criterion, one can say that McLaren here soundly falls in the heretic category. Not only does he bring down God, he essentially places man, especially ones like himself, in a seat of judgment over God, pronouncing judgments on things God did and said, saying even the sometimes God is "un-Christlike".
Most people who read the Bible would probably agree that there is a sense in which God reveals things about Himself over time. But this is more of a sense of God adding knowledge of Himself to what knowledge was before, rather than "trade-ups" as McLaren posits. There is no sense in, for example, the New Testament that the God of what we call the Old Testament--God in the books of Moses, God in the prophets, God in the recorded history--is being traded out for a new, improved, better God, like an older man divorces his wife for a younger model.
In the end, I think what McLaren is most against is Hell. Instead of seeing Hell as an aspect of the the justice of God, even if a rather harsh and hard-to-understand one, he calls it "torture" several times, as if he's trying to equate Hell with liberal's views of Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib. I think McLaren's politics comes into play here.
Finally, McLaren resorts to 'scare tactics' in order to try to make his interpretive method more user-friendly. He essentially says that we much do violence to the message of the Bible for our own good. Like all liberals, he sees people who don't agree with him as simply stupid, brutish, small-minded sheep, motivated only by self-interest. Perhaps because he has dismissed the Fall, he must hold to such a low view of man to explain why he isn't universally accepted.


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Indicators: Issue #28
The people of Bolivia
took to the streets in massive numbers in October, calling for more
control over their country's oil resources and, finally, toppling
President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.
U.S.-educated Lozada, a millionaire nicknamed "El Gringo" for his North American accent, had signed an unpopular natural gas deal with the multinational corporation Pacific LNG to pipe gas out of Bolivia and export it to California via Chile. Indigenous coca farmers who blocked roads in the countryside and slumdwellers in the shantytowns overlooking La Paz known as "El Alto" were joined by middle class urban residents on a hunger strike as tens of thousands of people marched throughout the country, waving flags, and shouting for Lozada's removal. At least 70 people were killed during the demonstrations.
Although supporters of the gas deal have argued that it
would have provided Bolivia with much needed income, Bolivians like Evo
Morales, a leader of the indigenous Aymara, and members of the
organization Central Obrera Boliviana demanded the ouster of Lozada and
his neoliberal policies, saying that most of the money would have gone
to the multinationals and not to the increasingly impoverished Bolivian
Seventy percent of Bolivians live in poverty, and much
of the local coca-growing economy that Bolivians have depended on in
the past has been decimated by U.S.-backed eradication of this crop,
from which cocaine is made.
The uprising was also an indication of the growing
power and dissatisfaction of Bolivia's indigenous community, people of
Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani descent who make up more than half of the
Bolivian population. During the Spanish colonization of Bolivia,
thousands of indigenous laborers were worked to death in the mines
while the profits from the silver and tin extracted went into European
"The people rose up because they refused to accept that
what had happened with the silver, the saltpeter, the tin, and
everything else was going to happen with the gas," said Uruguayan
writer Eduardo Galeano.
The uprising was the latest in a series of violent
demonstrations that had included the 2000 "war of the water" in which
Cochabamba peasants confronting bullets and tear gas wrenched ownership
of local water supplies from San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation,
and street protests earlier this year that halted IMF demands for a
special tax on salaries.
Former Vice President Carlos Mesa, who took office
after Lozada fled to Miami, has called for a national referendum on gas
policies, as well as more responsiveness to the needs of Bolivia's
indigenous people.
—Lisa Gale Garrigues
Lisa Gale Garrigues is a freelance writer who writes on South America and is a contributing editor for YES!
Experts Join Challenge to Liberties Crackdown
In a case testing the Bush administration's crackdown on civil liberties in the wake of September 11, a host of prominent lawyers, former federal judges, and former federal officials are supporting a lawsuit against the administration's handling of the case of José Padilla.
Padilla, a U.S. citizen, was seized at Chicago's O'Hare
airport in 2002 under suspicion of planning to detonate a radioactive
"dirty bomb" as part of an Al Qaeda plot. Padilla was later declared an
"enemy combatant" and moved from a prison to a military brig, where he
has never been charged with a crime and has not been allowed contact
with a lawyer or his family.
"[T]he Executive's position in this case threatens the
basic rule of law on which our country is founded, the role of the
federal judiciary and the separations in our national government, and
fundamental individual liberties enshrined in our Constitution," said a
friend-of-the-court brief to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal. The
brief was filed on July 30 by groups from across the political
spectrum, including the Cato Institute, the Center for National
Security Studies, the Constitution Project, the Lawyers Committee for
Human Rights (LCHR), People for the American Way, and the Rutherford
Their brief cited the fundamental constitutional right of habeas corpus, the right of an accused person to appear in a court to answer charges. Currently, no one but Padilla's captors knows what is happening to him.
Another friend-of-the-court brief, signed by such
prominent lawyers as Harold Tyler, Jr., a longtime Republican and
former deputy attorney general under President Gerald Ford, likened the
administration's treatment of Padilla to the policies of totalitarian
Meanwhile, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal on behalf of Yasser Hamdi, another U.S. citizen declared an enemy combatant. That decision has been appealed to the Supreme Court.
"The threat of being declared an enemy combatant is
like a nuclear bomb," said Kenneth Hurwitz, a staff attorney for LCHR.
Because an enemy combatant has no constitutional rights, an accused
person will plead guilty to any charge to avoid that status,
undermining the entire criminal justice framework, he said.
Criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the
war on terrorism is mounting. On October 10, the senior Red Cross
official in Washington, DC, Christophe Girod, criticized the indefinite
detention of over 600 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The public
statement was unusual for the Red Cross, which normally directs
criticism privately to government officials, and came, Girod said,
because the Bush administration had failed to take any action in
response to Red Cross concerns.
In July, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
asked a federal judge to declare unconstitutional the portion of the
USA PATRIOT Act that allows the government to seize information and
belongings secretly and without showing any probable cause that a crime
has been committed. Also in July, the U.S. House of Representatives
voted 309-118 to forbid certain funds from going to Justice Department
agencies that use the provision of the PATRIOT Act that allows these
"sneak-and-peek" search warrants. The measure was sponsored by an Idaho
As of October, three states (Alaska, Hawaii, and
Vermont) and 190 cities, towns, and counties had passed resolutions or
ordinances opposing the PATRIOT Act's infringement of civil liberties.
The Committee for Constitutional Rights has filed a
class-action lawsuit on behalf of Muslims imprisoned and harshly
treated by the federal government after the September 11 attacks.
In September, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the
Secret Service for violating the free speech rights of protestors
during appearances by President Bush throughout the country. According
to the suit, local police, acting at the direction of the Secret
Service, moved people expressing views critical of the government far
away from public officials and often out of public view, while allowing
those with pro-government views to remain closer. The Bush
administration has stated such measures are necessary for security.
—Carolyn McConnell
For more information on these cases, see www.lchr.org, www.nimj.com, or vvhttp://www.aclu.org.
Clean Elections Efforts Build
The movement for clean elections, covered in the Fall 2003 issue of YES!, continues to grow:
• In Maryland, a high-level government commission, appointed by the previous governor after a spate of money-in-politics scandals, is expected soon to recommend full public financing for all legislative offices. Progressive Maryland, a multi-issue coalition of over 45 organizations and 10,000 individuals, is leading an effort to turn those recommendations into policy.
• In Illinois, the state senate, under pressure from clean elections activists, passed a bill calling for full public financing of judicial elections. The coalition Justice at Stake is working to overcome opposition from the powerful speaker of the state house of representatives.
• In Wyoming, the Equality State Policy Center, a coalition of 23 organizations working on government accountability and public access issues, moving a democracy reform agenda through the legislature, and publishing a compilation of each legislator's campaign contributions and voting record, is working toward full public financing of Wyoming elections.
• A study by Public Campaign called "The Color of Money" has found that almost 90 percent of the $2 billion contributed by individuals in the federal elections of 2000 and 2002 came from zip codes that are majority non-Hispanic white. Just 1.8 percent of the cash came from predominantly Hispanic zip codes; 2.8 percent from predominantly African American zip codes, and 0.6 percent from predominantly Asian Pacific American neighborhoods.
Public Campaign is asking voters to sign on to a
"Lincoln Call" demanding an end to "government of, by, and for the
wealthy special interests." Within the first week that the call was
issued, 2,900 people had signed at www.pcactionfund.org/lincolncall.
—Micah Sifry
For more information, go to www.progressivemaryland.org, www.citizenaction-il.org, or www.equalitystate.org. Micah Sifry is Public Campaign's senior analyst.
California Goes Greener
What began as a group of students calling for the University of California to go solar has culminated in a new UC policy to construct green buildings on campuses and reduce system-wide non-renewable energy consumption by more than 10 percent by 2014. The policy, approved by the Board of Regents this summer, establishes one of the nation's first extensive plans for energy efficiency and sustainability.
The 'Green Building Policy and Clean Energy Standard' requires the university to purchase green power from the electrical grid, promoting energy efficiency and local renewable power sources. Under the policy, all new and renovated university facilities must be constructed using sustainability principles that exceed required provisions of the California Energy Code's efficiency standards by at least 20 percent.
Elsewhere in California, the urban youth empowerment
organization Literacy for Environmental Justice is beginning
construction on the first "off the grid" public building in San
Francisco. The Living Classroom will be built from recycled
construction materials and will include an on-site natural wastewater
treatment plant.
Funded by the San Francisco Department of the
Environment and the Coastal Conservancy, and designed with input from
public school students, the Living Classroom will be a solar- and
wind-powered community meeting space and environmental classroom in
Heron's Head Park, a 24-acre restored wetland on the former site of
Pier 98.
Near the classroom will be gardens with plants traditionally used by the area's original Ohlone inhabitants for food, medicine, and boat-building materials. The project is slated for completion in 2004.
—Kim Corrigan
Global Warming Costs Mount
This September was the hottest September worldwide since accurate recordkeeping began in 1880, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The spike in temperature coincided with the release of a study by the World Health Organization and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) that concludes approximately 160,000 people die every year from the side effects of global warming, and the numbers could almost double by 2025.
The majority of global warming victims come from the
Third World, where the proliferation of tropical diseases such as
malaria and the rise in malnutrition due to crop losses claim thousands
of lives every year. And, as Professor Andrew Haines of LSHTM
explained, "These diseases mainly affect younger age groups, so that
the total burden of disease due to climate change appears to be borne
mainly by children in developing countries." The 15,000 heat-related
deaths this past summer in France demonstrate that the First World is
not immune from the deadly effects of climate change.
As the intensity and frequency of droughts, floods, hurricanes, and windstorms increase with global warming, so do insurance losses. Forty years ago, an average of 16 large weather-related disasters occurred annually around the world. Today, the average is 72. The cost to insurers for weather-related events has risen from $7 billion to $90 billion. In the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Allstate Insurance dispensed $500 million more in claims than it had ever collected from all types of insurance in the state of Florida. Andrew drove seven other insurance companies to bankruptcy. As mega-catastrophies begin occurring every 25 years instead of every 100 years, insured losses will grow by another 900 percent, according to the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Faced with the prospect of losses on this scale, the insurance industry has been among the loudest voices urging political leaders to take the issue of climate change seriously.
—Krista Camenzind
Whose Voting Machines?
Two of the corporations that provide nearly all of the voting machines in the United States—ES&S and Diebold—are controlled by Republicans with strong ties to the Bush administration. One company is also linked to a far-right fundamentalist Christian movement.
In a recent mailing to Republican donors, Walden
O'Dell, CEO of Diebold Inc., one of three companies certified to sell
electronic voting equipment to the state of Ohio, stated his commitment
"to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next
All of the $195,000 Diebold has given in political contributions since 2000 went to the Republican Party or Republican candidates, as has all of the over $240,000 that the company's directors and chief officers have donated, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Diebold and ES&S are heavily interconnected. Brothers Todd and Bob Urosevich founded American Information Services (AIS), which became ES&S when AIS merged with Business Records Corporation (BRC). Todd works at ES&S as vice president, while Bob is now president of Diebold. ES&S claims that it counted 56 percent of U.S. votes in the last four presidential elections.
AIS was initially funded by Howard Ahmanson. Ahmanson
is a member of the Council for National Policy, a "steering group"
linked to the Bush administration, and has holdings in ES&S.
Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, former CEO of AIS, had significant AIS
holdings when the company counted the votes for his surprise election
victory in 1996. Hagel has been scrutinized by the Senate Ethics
Committee over his investments in the McCarthy Group. ES&S, which
counted the votes when Hagel was re-elected in 2002, is a subsidiary of
the McCarthy Group, according to The Hill.
BRC was started with money from Texas billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt. Both Ahmanson and Hunt are large contributors to the Chalcedon Foundation, a think tank for the Christian Reconstruction movement, which advocates literal application of Old-Testament law.
The company hired by the Republican governor of Maryland to analyze Diebold's computer voting systems, defense contractor SAIC, also has close Republican ties. SAIC reported that security flaws in Diebold's systems could be fixed.
SAIC board members Admiral Bill Owens (former military
aide to Dick Cheney), and ex-CIA chief Robert Gates, who was implicated
in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, also serve on the board of
VoteHere, a growing elections software company. SAIC itself is
producing electronic voting systems in partnership with Diversified
SAIC has been investigated for fraud and security lapses in its electronic systems, but has received contracts for work in Iraq.
Electronic security and verifiability have become issues in the shift to computerized voting mandated by the Help America Vote Act. Voting expert Rebecca Mercuri, a Bryn Mawr College professor of computer science, argues that computer voting technology is vulnerable to error and manipulation and should not be used unless it includes paper receipts. (See YES!, Spring 2003 and Fall 2003.)
—Doug Pibel, Carolyn McConnell, and Krista Camenzind
Rides for Freedom
A two-week road trip across the country by the Immigrant Workers' Freedom Ride (IWFR) culminated in a rally attended by an estimated 100,000 people on October 4 in Queens, New York. Organizers and riders vowed to continue the fight for immigrants' rights.
The IWFR, modeled after the Freedom Rides of the 1960s,
saw buses from 10 cities with over 800 riders drive across the country,
stopping in 93 cities and towns before meeting in Washington, DC, to
lobby Congress to change immigration law.
The IWFR's five-point agenda calls for legalization of undocumented workers, family reunification, labor law protections for immigrants, and civil rights for immigrants. The IWFR is being hailed as a success by the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE), which helped coordinate the event.
"Locally, we've seen a busload of people develop as a
team of leaders," said Liza Wilcox, community action coordinator for
Seattle's Hate Free Zone.
Marissa Graciosa, communications coordinator for the Illinois Coalition on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, also witnessed a transformation in the riders. "I got to see people evolve from being scared to use their name, to saying they have a right to use their name and to tell their story," Graciosa said. "We now have 45 people who were on the bus ready to do the tough work to create real change they can see."
Bobbe Hellom, an African-American rider from Chicago, who was on the bus to support immigrant riders, was energized by the IWFR. "I don't care if you're a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent—we've got a broken wheel and we should be prepared to repair it," said Hellom. "I'm going to be kicking and fighting. I'm 68, I was born in 1935. If I live another 100 years, I'd be doing the same thing today. I should have been on the bus before now."
The rides were conceived by labor unions, marking a
landmark change in immigration policy by the labor movement; the
AFL-CIO voted to support the rights of undocumented workers only in
"Labor has been incredible in this movement," said
Graciosa. "They can really turn out a lot of support. It was great to
see not just immigrants in the crowds, but other people from labor as
well. They've raised the bar on organizing for immigrants' rights."
Some coalition leaders, however, noted that although riders visited the
offices of over 200 members of Congress, many were met by secretaries,
aides, and even interns, leaving riders unsure of their impact.
Coalition leaders are holding a series of meetings to
discuss how to sustain the new momentum and to create local action
plans. Leaders of HERE met in Washington, DC, in October to discuss
plans for another national mobilization.
—Megan Tady
Navy Backs Down on Sonar, Not on DU
Marine mammals won new protection against sonar under an agreement between the U.S. Navy and environmental groups announced October 13. The agreement limits the Navy's peacetime use of a controversial low-frequency sonar system to less than 1 percent of the worlds' oceans. Environmental groups argue that the sonar, known as the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low-Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA), can harm or kill marine life.
When the National Marine Fisheries Service gave the
Navy a permit to use SURTASS in 75 percent of the world's oceans, the
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other environmental groups
challenged the decision in court. Judge Elizabeth Laporte struck down
the permit in August and ordered the parties to come to agreement. The
accord, however, allows the Navy to use low-frequency sonar along the
eastern coast of Asia, a 1.5 million-square-mile area that includes the
waters off Okinawa. This area has been described as "the Galapagos of
the East," and is home to the endangered dugong, a relative of the
Researchers have also found evidence of "the bends," a
condition experienced by human divers who surface too quickly, in
whales found beached in the Canary Islands after a nearby naval
maneuver deployed mid-frequency sonar. SURTASS is a lower frequency
than the type that is suspected in the May deaths of 13 harbor
porpoises in the San Juan Islands, but the agreement is "a good step
because low-frequency active sonar travels so far," said David Bain, a
researcher with the University of Washington.
The environmental groups' success in this lawsuit has fueled a push for further limits on the use of sonar. The European Parliament will be addressing a bill introduced last month calling for limits on sonar use by NATO. However, the U.S. Navy is pushing for legislation that would modify the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, exempting it from environmental regulations that the Navy says impede national security. If the changes are passed and the Navy is exempted from these regulations, the sonar victory may be short-lived.
The Navy has also been embroiled in a dispute over its firing of depleted uranium (DU) shells in fishing grounds off the coast of Washington. The Navy has been testing DU munitions since 1977, but the practice was only recently revealed to the public through an investigation by Glen Milner and Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Washington and articles in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Although little research about the effect of this radioactive heavy metal on marine life has been done, DU shells fired on land have been shown to release radiation and produce toxic dust that can enter the food chain and are suspected in high cancer rates among U.S. soldiers and Iraqis. Community groups have been organizing in towns such as Port Townsend, Washington, near a DU munitions storage site, to inform people about DU and develop legal means to keep the Navy from incinerating DU or firing it in nearby waters.
—Rachel Milanez
Jewish Group Issues Call to Bring Settlers Home
American Jews who want to see Israel withdraw from its settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are joining an online call to "bring the settlers home to Israel."
Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, a national grassroots membership organization founded in 2002, debuted its online signature campaign in May 2003. As of October, the online call had over 8,500 signatures from Jews throughout the U.S., crossing all ranks and denominations, from rabbis to laypeople and from Reform and Orthodox Jews alike.
Believing that the settlement issue is one of the most serious threats to Israel's security and a major obstacle to achieving a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom (literally "a covenant of righteousness and peace" in Hebrew), wants the Israeli government to reverse its policy of providing financial incentives to settlers and use that same money to re-settle them back within the pre-1967 borders of the Jewish state.
In a May 2003 letter to the membership, Brit Tzedek
President Marcia Freedman estimated it would take between $2 and $3
billion to relocate all of the roughly 200,000 settlers currently
living in the territories. U.S. aid to Israel is about $3 billion per
While the amount Israel spends on the settlements is unknown, Freedman has concluded that the Israeli government spends twice as much on each settler as it spends on an Israeli living within the pre-1967 Israeli borders. An Israeli who moves to the West Bank or Gaza receives approximately $4,000 in tax breaks and subsidized down payments and mortgage interest rates.
"We believe that many American Jews share this
perspective, but are reluctant to express themselves for fear they may
bring harm to Israel and the Jewish people," says the group's website.
While Brit Tzedek strongly disagrees with Israel's settlement activity,
the group wants it to be known that it is just as committed to the
well-being and safety of Israel as pro-Israeli groups.
After signing the call, members can join one of the 20
chapters already organized in cities around the United States or they
can start a chapter in their own city.
—Janis Siegel
For more information, go to www.btvshalom.org. Janis Siegel is a freelance writer who lives in Seattle.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Rethinking the Avant Garde
4 comments:
- Thivai Abhor said...
Great question... let me just ask more questions as a member of academia (as we may label it)...
1) Does the term "avant garde" which carries such a loaded conotation from its roots as a military term meaning those that are the front lines... and so historically rooted in the "historical" avant garde artistic movements of the early 20th century... in other words... does is it still a term that is relevant or necessary? It just seems somewhat pretentious ... I say this as someone who would want to be on the frontlines (which is why I am so tortured about the term)
2) When we stick a pin in avant garde is it still alive? Then yes, if we think of academia as a musty profession only sifting through the cavernous archives... then we can only approach it retrospectively... but! perhaps there are some that might want to be on the crest of a wave, or perhaps even paddling in front charting our own course???
3) Academia is but one voice and our our voice is sometimes important and sometimes utter bullshit... we should just do what we believe is important (or better yet work toward a better future)... but then I am just a fucking romantic and thus utterly ridiculous...
4) I worked (and was raised) in construction from the time I was 15 till I was 25. Since then I have been in academia... both professions have taught me (as well as traveling and engaging with life in all its many forms) that all walls/barriers are permeable. Yes, it should be acknowleged, as well as our own constructs we use to fortress our theoretical positions... check this for a my mythical trip into this quest:
Why I should be aware of my position and its movements
5) Yes! acknowledge this permeability and that you are in-between dishonesty, or lying, or terror, or oppression, or exploitation, generally is rooted in a singular, controlling vision.
6) Not really sure what youmean by "uncanny"... it carries to many freudian conotations...
Thanks for the provocative thoughts.
- Thivai Abhor said...
the last comment was typed in a passionate rush so should be read with a conscious insertion of pauses and editorial marks ;)
- kfd313 said...
I hope the fllowing doesn't come across as rude, Thivai (one never knows or can control the "tone" of one's comments)...
I think discussions around the term "avant garde" are problematic. After all, aren't there a million terms philologically (potentially) rife with historical difficulties? To me the avant garde is a useful term to denote artistic practices that are politically and critically charged. Sometimes they are "ahead" of or (sometimes in opposition to) mainstream culture. (When I put "ahead" in parentheses it's because I don't really think this. I agree with Dave Thomas of the band Pere Ubu that nothing's really ahead of its time, particualrly not art. Gertrude Stein's comments about this are also crucial to my thinking. The way I recall her arguemnt, artistic wrks may not be accepted or liked or understood at their hisotrical moment, but they aren't really "ahead".)
So, ok, There might be a historical continuity to the avant garde in some practices, among some artists, and there might not. It's an avenue then, for us to see how practices, repeat, react, develop against, overcome, utilize, etc. that continuity/knowledge consciously as well as to see how the avant garde might be spinning out globally in unforeseen places and directions. So then, I don't think it's any more problematic to think through, or use the term, avant garde than it is to think you can be sincere or unpretentious by avoiding it.
And I'll just briefly say that I agree in part that academia "is sometimes important and sometimes utter bullshit." I think everyone in academia pretty much thinks the same thing. But I don't think it's as simple as "just do what you believe is important." When I read that sentence every word seems so weighted with potential and danger... What I find exciting and important about academia or intellectual pursuit in general, is the way we can build up an important discourse and new avenue for thinking by tearing that sentence apart. (I like tearing by the way. It's a good thing, in my opinion; plus, it's in my nature!)
Finally, I too spent many years outside the "ivory tower" and so yeah, I agree, it's basically a permeable structure that too often is defensively, and theoretically closed off.
Finally, not sure why the term "uncanny" having Freudian connotations is problematic exactly. Uncanniness, as far as Freud is concerned, is an interesting term in that it carries with it a temporal dimension. Besides that it might clarify matters to admit that I was also speaking indirectly to a friend and colleague who had utilized the term in a paper she presented on avant garde poetics.
I was also thinking of Cathy Caruth's work on trauma. She discusses the uncanniness of the traumatic event as an experience that always happens "too late" or actually ony happnes the second time, in the re-telling,since the experience of trauma is only avalaible in retrospect.
In part then, I am trying to suss out the relationship between the temporality of the avant garde (both historically and in the present) and trauma. Reaching back around to my initial defense of the term, even with its historical connotations, we might actually, usefully, retain its military connotation since it points out the relationship between violence, trauma, and aesthetics, even at-- perhaps especially at -- the level of language itself.
Thanks so much for the food for thought.
- Thivai Abhor said...
Not rude at all :)
I think we are very close in our positions, we are just articulating it in different ways.
I'm not a big fan of the word "tearing" perhaps of the violent implications? how about to "unpack"? or the old standby of deconstructing?
More when I have time, new semester starts tomorrow and I'm still working on my film courses--thanks!


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Two parallel stories are told in The Bride, one of which is a lot better than the other.
The less effective of the tales concerns a scientist in 17th century Europe. Baron Frankenstein creates an artifical woman by stitching sections of cadavers together, and then tutors her so she'll be fit to be his bride. The other story focuses on an earlier creation of the scientist, a male creature also made of corpses, who teams with a dwarf to join a traveling circus.


text:
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Century 21 Cedar Glen Ltd Brokerage
124 Garafraxa St. S
Durham, Ontario, N0G 1R0
Phone number:519-369-2000 or Toll Free 1-866-644-5508
Fax number:519-369-2429
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
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Century 21 Cedar Glen Ltd. Brokerage
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text:
About to leave for CFUnited
Aug 11
I am about to leave for CFUnited... I just wanted to just send out a quick post.
It's been a while since I've released a CFConversations episode, just due to me being insanely busy on a bunch of things. There hasn't been any time for a podcast, but I'll be trying to get some out this week, including ones recorded at the conference.
I'll be hosting a day 1 open mike round table podcast scheduled for 5:30 on Wednesday, and CFConversations will be situated in the Legolas room throughout the conference, interviewing and podcasting away. Anyone who's at the conference can attend the open mike session, to listen and/or participate, and I'll be looking to schedule interviews throughout the conference.
That's all I have time for right now, but for more, see here:


text:
Increase Website Traffic by Helping Readers Find Your Writing: How to Create Index Hubs
© 2012 by Aurelio Locsin.
For your non-fiction hubs, the ultimate goal is to provide information that readers find helpful. If your writing is worthwhile, they'll want to read your other efforts on the same topic, increasing your website traffic. Sadly, HubPages provides no convenient way for visitors to find all your hubs relating to a particular subject.
You can provide references to your other hubs through the use of the Link capsule. But if you have dozens of articles on the same category, putting all their titles in one capsule becomes unwieldy. A more elegant solution is to use an Index hub.
What Is An Index Hub?
As the name implies, an Index hub links all related articles and puts them in one location. This allows readers to quickly view your offerings and jump to a hub of interest by clicking a title. You can also duplicate a title under more than one index if it falls under more than one category. For example a title such as Sell Your Home Quick with Staging could fall under a Real Estate index and a Decorating index.
The bottom line is one visit to your Index hub can increase traffic to all its linked articles.
Link Capsules?
You would think that an Index hub consisting solely of Link capsules would be an ideal way to help the reader. This is easy to create because you're choosing titles from a dropdown box to populate the capsule. Your selection automatically displays the correct title and summary so users can easily find the correct article. My initial indexes used this method.
HubPages quickly marked such hubs as Duplicate and Substandard because they contained no original writing. (Never mind that the guidelines recommend using Link capsules in hubs to spread the views throughout HubPages.) My indexes remained unpublished despite my plea that they were created specifically to point to related hubs.
I had to eliminate all Link capsules and use Text capsules instead. This removed the Substandard flag. Then I had to rewrite hub titles and summaries to eliminate the Duplicate flag. For example, in my Medicine Jobs and Salaries index, an ordinary link and summary that would look like this in a Link capsule:
- The Highest Paid Anesthesiologists in America: Where These Doctors Make The Best Salaries
Anesthesiologists ensure that patients remain pain-free during operations. Their high salaries differ by employer and location.
Was rewritten to look like this in a Text capsule:
- Anesthesiologists Salaries: An essential part of any surgical team, anesthesiologists manage patient pain not only during operations but before and after. Find out how their salaries differ by employer and location.
(I am paraphrasing these example titles and descriptions to avoid the Duplicate flag on this hub.)
To make the Index hub more readable, I put related topics under subtitles such as Doctors, Dental Jobs and Other Medical Jobs. I also preceded the listing of hubs with a 100-word introduction summarizing jobs in medicine and explaining the purpose of the index. This was a suggestion by the HubPages team to avoid another Substandard flag.
You can browse the final results here: Alocsin's Medicine Jobs and Salaries Index.
RSS Capsules
Longer Index hubs can include a What's New RSS feed at the beginning that shows the latest hubs under a topic. This quickly shows my latest writing to frequent visitors. The syntax for the Feed URL is as follows:
Where <username> is your HubPages name and <topic> is the subject of your index, as in the following example:
You'll find an example of a What's New RSS capsule in Alocsin's Jobs and Salaries Index.
If your Index hub contains too many titles, it will look cumbersome even with subtitles. You can then create sub-indexes to which the main Index refers. Sub-indexes are simply smaller Index hubs with fewer titles. For example, my Alocsin's Jobs and Salaries Index has links to such sub-indexes as Computer Jobs and Salaries Index and Engineering Jobs and Salaries Index.
My Index hubs use bulleted lists because I feel this is the quickest way for readers to find related hubs. (In fact, the Link capsules present titles in bulleted lists.) However, this is by no means the only way to structure indexes. You can also use a more conversational style by describing ideas and topics and working the titles of hubs into the text.
If you've developed your own style of Index hubs, please share your methods in the Comments field. Otherwise, please take the poll.
Do you currently use Index hubs?
Related Books
Hi alocsin,
So far I have written four such hubs and have organized them by the different travel articles within one state. Florida, Arizona, Utah and Oregon are the ones written thus far, and if I write another article in any of those states, I will add it to the Main Page File as I call it. I should do more like that when I have the time. Index hubs or Main Page hubs are worth doing! Up and useful votes.
This, as already said, is a great idea! Scrolling and scrolling leads to boredom and boredom leads to readers leaving....indexing makes things so much easier for the reader they may stick around and read more.
We always face the problem of "overlinking" and setting off the Hub-gods (no disrespect intended) so you seemed to cover that as well.
Voted up, useful and interesting.
I fully agree that it's useful to have a link page or index page to keep together and make easily accessible all hubs on a common theme, and it's a pity there isn't a mechanism specifically for this purpose on HubPages.
What I do on my profile page is that whenever I have written ten or more hubs on a given theme, then I effectively create a link to a 'home page' to all the other pages on that theme. So far I've done that with 'Film Reviews' and 'Travel Guides' and I've incorporated general information on the subject matter, as well as the links in order to make them (hopefully) readable pages in their own right.
Not sure it's actually increased traffic yet though. One really needs an effective way of advertising the index page, I guess.
Voted up.
Hi, I hadn't thought of that, the fact that by just adding links it would be regarded as wrong, but by doing it in the text it does work, maybe on the profile page just writing one word to explain each hub? for example, Angels, cars, etc not sure if it would work though, rated up and bookmarked to make sure I get it right!
Interesting and useful hub, but quite frankly the effort to get around the hubpage police is not worth my effort.
Yes, bite my nose to spite my face.
This is a really useful hub. I am going to bookmark it so I can come back and reread as I am technologically challenged to say the least and it takes a few reads to understand!
Great information, thanks for putting this hub together. I hope to need this information soon!! I've only a few hubs so far.
The indexing is something I am going to have to look into and add to my hub articles. I will keep this hub in my library as a guide. I clicked on a couple of your indexes and got a message stating you had removed them. I appreciate all the sharing of information you give. Voted up.
What a novel idea! Great tips and solutions for hub layout, capsule use and more.
I'm unsure if I have enough hubs just yet, but THIS hub is more than worthy of holding on to!
Definitely voting, up, useful...and BOOKMARKED!
Thanks for putting this together! I want to take a closer look at the idea of index hubs soon and you've provided some great information and tips.
Oh, okay! Thanks for the information. It's a much better idea than grouping, where all your Hub titles get lost because there are too many of them. No one knows what you have to offer! Voted up and everything else.
Very useful article Alocsin. Your index idea is brilliant. I actually used one for my tattoo articles and it has been successful. I learn so much from you and your informative articles. I always look out for the next one. Another helpful article pal. Have a great day.
Index hub is a great idea. Now with a handful of hubs, I don't need them. May be later. Voted up and useful. Shared.
That is a good idea of creating index Hub. But you are right that an index Hub still requires a lot of original writing.
This makes more than enough sense if you have enough Hubs. So I tried to bring up Anesthesiologist Salaries to look at it, and I came up with a 404. What am I missing, here?
You always have the best ideas. What a great idea and it will help with the bounce rate on HP. You are innovative!!
Really enjoyed this hub and bookmarked it. A couple of the links about the RSS indexes were not working when I clicked on them? I'll stop back in a while to try again. Voted up and useful.
This is an excellent hub I plan to use in the future, when I have enough hubs to index! Bookmarked, voted up and useful!
I like this idea! Although I have a few more, make that a lot more, Hubs to write before I have so much content that it needs indexing, I think this is a really good way to not only make your Hubs more accessible but with well-written summaries that are SEO'd you'll be able to draw more traffic in and then keep visitors reading by having everything all laid out in one place. Great job on this Hub. Voted Up, useful, interesting and shared. Have a great day!
I think once I get more hubs, other than groups, I'm going to need to start organizing them. I just might use your idea here of indexing. Thanks for the head's up on how to do it. Your hard-earned fight made it easier for the rest of us. Great job!
Interesting idea. What do you think of just putting all the hub links on your profile and make there an index? wouldn't this work as well? Otherwise I think it is a good idea to make a short introduction, so the readers knows what's going to expect him. Useful hub and Voting this Up!


text:
2011-02-10 — bloomberg.com
"U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will present Congress with three options for reducing the government's role in the nation's housing finance system and shrinking the footprint of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to two people familiar with the plan."
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text:
In the Matter of
Ritchie Capital Management LLC, Ritchie Multi-Strategy Global Trading Ltd., A.R. Thane Ritchie and Warren Louis DeMaio
Notice of Proposed Distribution Plan and Opportunity for Comment
Notice is hereby given, pursuant to Rule 1103 of the Securities and Exchange Commission's ("Commission") Rules on Fair Fund and Disgorgement Plans, 17 C.F.R. § 201.1103, that the Division of Enforcement has submitted to the Commission a proposed plan for the distribution of the Fair Fund in this matter ("Distribution Plan"). On February 5, 2008, the Commission issued an Order instituting settled administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings against Ritchie Capital Management L.L.C. ("Ritchie Capital"), Ritchie Multi-Strategy Global Trading Ltd.("RMS Fund"), A.R. Thane Ritchie ("Thane Ritchie"), and Warren Louis DeMaio ("DeMaio") in this matter ("the Order"). In the Matter of Ritchie Capital Management LLC, et al., Administrative Proceeding File No. 3-12947, Release No. 8890 (Feb. 5, 2008). In the Order, the Commission authorized and established a Fair Fund, comprised of $40,191,968.82 in disgorgement and penalties paid by Ritchie Capital, RMS Fund, Thane Ritchie and DeMaio, for distribution to mutual funds affected by certain late trading activity. The Order provided that the Fair Fund was to be distributed pursuant to a Distribution Plan developed by Ritchie Capital.
Pursuant to this Notice, all interested parties are advised that they may print a copy of the Distribution Plan from the Commission's public website, http://www.sec.gov. Interested parties may also obtain a written copy of the Distribution Plan by submitting a written request to Robert L. Burson, Associate Regional Director, United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 175 West Jackson Street, Suite 900, Chicago, IL 60604. All persons who desire to comment on the Distribution Plan may submit their comments, in writing, no later than August 29, 2008:
to the Office of the Secretary, United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20549-1090;
by using the Commission's Internet comment form (Submit comments on Proposed Distribution Plan); or
by sending an e-mail to email@example.com.
Comments submitted by e-mail or via the Commission's website should include "Administrative Proceeding File Number 3-12947" on the subject line. Comments received will be publicly available. Persons should submit only information that they wish to make publicly available.
The Fair Fund is comprised of $40,191,968.82, which consists of disgorgement paid by Ritchie Capital and RMS Fund, jointly and severally, in the amount of $30 million and prejudgment interest, jointly and severally, of $7,441,966.82, a civil money penalty paid by Ritchie Capital and Thane Ritchie, jointly and severally, of $2,500,000, and a civil money penalty paid by DeMaio of $250,000. Both Thane Ritchie and DeMaio each also paid disgorgement in the amount of $1.00. The Distribution Plan provides for distribution of the Fair Fund to mutual funds affected by the late trading conduct between January 2001 and September 2003 ("affected mutual funds") as described in the Order. If the Distribution Plan is approved, the affected mutual funds will receive a proportionate share of the Fair Fund as calculated by Ritchie Capital in consultation with the Commission's staff. The distribution amount to each affected mutual fund will be calculated from information in Ritchie Capital's records and in consultation with the Commission's staff. The affected mutual funds will not need to go through a claims process.
For the Commission, by its Secretary, pursuant to delegated authority.
Florence E. Harmon
Acting Secretary
See also Proposed Distribution Plan
|Home | Previous Page
Modified: 07/30/2008


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Hi Healthy Lockers!
I'm feeling some kinda way right now. I conducted a very fun and engaging live broadcast and featured two new videos, BUT forgot to press the RECORD button. So I'm stressed, hungry and pretty bummed out over the situation. So all of you who did not participate on the live broadcast, will never see that fantastically fun and engaging broadcast.
I'm just so drained now because that was very disappointing to discover. It's 2:17 am and I'm totally spent and too tired to write this post. So for right now, I'll just post the two videos that I shared during the live broadcast. I'll come back to this later on in the week and make it a more proper post.
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text: Our online pharmacy has incorporated multiple payment options in order to accommodate payment in all global currencies and in all possible places. We accept payment through cards and we process all kinds of card payments. Our payment gateway is highly secured and is protected by an encrypted shield. We consistently strive to maintain the confidentiality of all the information of our customers. We also have various payment assistance teams who will be at your disposal any time you seek information. The payment transaction takes place in an environment that is safe from any form of data theft or leakage or online piracy.


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This simple tool will change your life. I was lucky to learn how to solder surface mount from a master. He had crafted a tool very similar to this for himself and used it daily. The design is simple, a weighted pin is attached to a piece of round stock and this holds the part down on the board. Using this tool I soldered an entire surface mount board with no errors on my first try.
When you assemble the tool make sure that you push the bolt through and thread the nut first, because you might bend the threads while filing the tip down. Make sure that the tip has a round point about the size of a standard ball point pen. Any sharper and you could damage/mar parts.
To use the tool just put the part under the pin and go. It's that simple, no re flow plates or panavises or any of that junk. You don't need to worry about tip size for most jobs either. Another plus is that the bolt acts as a heat sink so small parts don't fry.
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text:
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- Where: ShopTo
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The price of this game keeps getting better and better, with it finally dropping below the £15 mark. For those looking to return to Gallia and get their tactical J-RPG on, Valkyria Chronicles II gives the player control of a new cast (who manage to follow every anime stereotype in existence) in the action you have come to know and love from the first instalment. Those worrying that the jump from PS3 to PSP may have hampered anything need not worry as the game translates well, and if you can survive the high school-esque conversations the turn-based combat is still as rewarding and challenging as ever, making it a worthwhile purchase for any PSP owner looking for a bit of strategy on the go.


text:
After reading this great LA Times piece from Meredith Woerner about the new Beauty and the Beast remake (perhaps you have heard of it?), I suddenly felt something I almost never feel: a desire to see a musical. Not usually my cup of tea. I am not overly fond of cartoons, so I have never even seen the (Disney) original. I do vaguely remember seeing a French version for a college film class, but it made nary an impression on my neanderthal brain. Typically, I would classify this type of movie as a date movie – for early in the relationship. Very early. Or maybe a good option if you got stuck with the kids, and Kong Island was playing at the same time in the theater next door: "Here's 20 bucks for a candy bar; I'll see you animals in two hours." Yet there I was, at 9am on a weekday, fighting off that "what the hell am I doing?" feeling with, "This is for work." Just me all by myself – followed by $170 million worth of other people over the weekend.
Well, I was pleasantly surprised. It's fun, funny, exciting, romantic (almost as romantic as Kong) – and, most importantly, pretty damn great for book people.
Here's what you, your date or the kids can take away from this movie and its book-lover heroes Belle and Beast:
Belle, the voracious reader (which is what the word "belle" means in French, if you didn't know – from the Greek), appears to be the only young lady in the village who can see past Gaston's surface qualities.
Stuck in this hopelessly provincial village, Belle manages to expand her understanding of the world through her reading. She does not know only the people who live next door or down the street, but also "knows" the people she encounters in fiction, history, etc.. This gives her a more sophisticated method of assessing the qualities of the village's most eligible bachelor, the jerk-face Gaston. While she is able to detect arrogance, meanness and stupidity by comparing him with familiar characters from her reading, the other girls simply do not have as many reference points, and in their assessments must stop at 'Has large hands".
If you want to make the right kind of woman fall in love with you, you'd better have a good-sized library.
The point in the movie where Belle first looks at Beast with a sparkle in her eyes is right after he's shown her his impressive library. Now, it's certainly true that the sparkle is more for the books at that moment, but that's a powerful hit of dopamine, and it's his library and he's standing right there. It's a pretty great move for that stage of their relationship. Plus, he is honest. When she asks if he's read all of them, he admits he hasn't. No need to front, when you're the real deal. Also, it doesn't hurt that he's combed his fur.
Not everyone supports literacy, in particular, those who hold power unjustly.
Belle is perhaps the only young lady in her village with an overt interest in reading – if not the only one who can read. There is a clear patriarchy: at one point, you see the boys all going in to school, while the girls are doing laundry. Not only is Belle ridiculed for reading, but she is flat-out harassed when she is seen teaching a younger girl how to read. Her love of reading and willingness to teach others could upset the laundry schedule! And what happens if she suddenly wants to go to school? Anarchy! The only one (besides her dad) who supports her interest? The local minister, which leads us to…
…Being unselfish with even a small library is good work.
The minister has the only library in town, and it is literally one small shelf of books. He lends them to Belle liberally. This simple thing is a bit of a risk for him. They must be expensive, what if she loses one? What if one of the knuckle-dragging villagers grabs it from her and throws it in the mud? What if he himself suffers abuse for encouraging her reading? He does it anyway, and it absolutely contributes to her growth, and, as we've seen, perhaps saves her from marrying Gaston le Bag de la Douche.
Poetry is one of the few man-made things that blends effortlessly with nature.
In a romantic scene where Belle and Beast are strolling through his wintery garden, she reads poetry out loud as he takes in the scenery. It's nice. Compare/contrast, say, playing darts in the garden or watching a movie or doing your taxes. There's nothing wrong with those other activities, but you can't enjoy nature while doing them. You have to pick: movie or lake, basketball or warbling nightingale, doing an oil change on your car or a bracing thunderstorm. Mixing poetry and nature, on the other hand, is seamlessly complimentary, like chocolate & peanut butter or bourbon & corn chips (trust me on that one).
Arguing about literature is a good sign of compatibility.
Early in the movie, Gaston feigns enthusiasm about a book Belle is carrying, and when she questions him about it, he has nothing to say. (This is, of course, because he hasn't actually read it, but that's beside the point.) Later, Belle and Beast have a disagreement involving the merits of Romeo and Juliet that then continues into the tales of King Arthur. And then they fall in love. It's as simple as that.
Books can be weaponized.
In the climactic battle between the village mob and the bewitched furniture, a stack of books are used as non-lethal projectiles. I can't remember which sentient household object flung the books, but if you have books, a good arm and aim, you could defend your home against doltish, mobbing villagers. Also, as seen in this video, you can punch someone in the face with a book. Make sure they are actually attacking you before doing this, and use the spine, so you don't damage the book.
Belle and Beast are our kind of people: literate, tough, independent, and covered in fur. This classic remains a classic not just because it's lavish, filled with stars and has cool effects – oh yeah, and singing – but because, like any classic, there is substance in the details.