Yay me. Quiz result.

Mellonamin! You have passed your test with flying
colors! I applaud you and welcome you to the
hall of those truly worthy of the title
"Tolkien Fan." Cuamin linduva yassen
megrille, yaaraer!


So, you think you know Lord of the Rings?
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Just for the record, Americans aren't the only smegheads about anti-war messages.

'No anti-war badges' says driver

A bus company has apologised to a passenger who was told to get off a bus unless he took off an anti-war badge.

Peter Bearder, 26, from Oxford, was boarding an Oxford Bus Company bus in Carfax on Friday, 15 minutes before an anti-war demonstration was due to start.

When he got on the driver told him to either take off the anti-war badge he was wearing, or get off the bus. . .

Granted, the bus company apologized to the man BEFORE police and lawsuit threats were involved, but I'd just like to point out that for all the 'eek, eek, America is being run by fascist thugs who'll stomp on the antiwar point of view and devour baby bunnies in the process because they're blindly patriotically evil' talk... we're not the only ones who have people acting like gits for no good reason.

"Be generous, Sir Samuel. Truly treat all men equally. Allow Klatchians the right to be scheming bastards, hmm?"

Mildly disconcerting realization about current literary interests

As I mentioned a day or two ago, I started rereading the Silmarillion recently. I'd forgotten how much of a sucker I am for grand old mythological epicfoo. Even when it gets horrendously overblown or repetitive, I'll keep ploughing right on through it and enjoy it. I assume I developed this fondness somewhere around third or fourth grade, when the Gifted & Talented kids (there were about twelve of us in the class, if I remember right) got into a Who Can Read The Biggest Book? contest. My major accomplishments were Clan of the Cave Bear and The Once and Future King. Once you've read that kind of stuff as a nine-year-old, the idea of diving headfirst into The Odyssey when you reach high school is nothin', man. Add to that the fact that after I watched The Hobbit (the cartoon is really a nice little piece of work, even if it did leave out large chunks of the book) and read the novel, my dad put me straight onto reading The Lord of the Rings, and... well. Big books good. Big mythic books better.

Anyway, after the realization that there were Buddhist themes crawling out of every available joint in the woodwork of the Silmarillion (well, with the possible exception of the Ainulindale part at the beginning), I found myself fondly remembering the Tolkien background material I'd read in high school. I was pacing up and down in front of the SF/F shelves at Borders last night, trying to remember which of the series had been my last and trying to decide which picture-book related to the Lord of the Rings would make a nice gift for my HK penpal, when it hit me:

The last time I got this obsessed with Tolkien, I was in high school I read everything available at the time. Book of Lost Tales I and II, The Peoples of Middle-Earth, The Lays of Beleriand, The Shaping of Middle-Earth, Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle Earth, two more that I think were in the history of Middle-Earth series, the Silmarillion itself, you name it. My entrance application to Harvard included the option of simply listing every book I'd read in the past twelve months instead of doing one of the three essays, and I still wonder what they thought when they hit the Tolkien stretch. I applied to Harvard in the autumn of my senior year, 1991. I'd read the Tolkien books mostly in the late part of junior year, early 1991. And all of a sudden they were calling me back again, sucking me in like a bug in the path of a Shop-Vac. I hadn't seen either of the movies in months (although I did have a copy of Fellowship of the Ring downstairs, I just hadn't watched it lately), so what was provoking it?

As nearly as I can tell, I'm diving into Tolkien headfirst now for the same reasons as I did back then, although it's not as if I realized it back then. It's lovely, mind-occupying stuff that's just about as far as it's possible to get from the Gulf War. It gave me an outlet then, something else to think about, something more morally bearable and understandable than invasions and bombings and leaders of highly debatable motives - and it promised punishment for the wicked, without possibility of their being left any shred of reward.

I know it can't be that way in the real world, and I know escapism on a constant basis is as unhealthy as 16-hour-a-day exposure to the news, but if I have to pull myself out of the emotional morass that this war's managed to create, at least I'm doing it with something literary. And at least it leaves me with enough resolve to go on and face reality, and at least try to morally understand the world around me.

Now if I could just control the demon that seems to have moved into my right hand. It keeps trying to seize control of the mouse and go add more Tolkienana (sp.?) to the Amazon Wish List I have.

Interesting follow-up to the myopia post

I'm not going to comment on this, except to make a very quiet pumping of the fist in midair and a here's-hoping-this-helps crossing of the fingers.

Shakeup at Air Force Academy After Rape Scandal
Wed March 26, 2003 12:19 PM ET
By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force announced on Wednesday the removal of four top officials at its elite academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where dozens of women cadets said they were raped and their complaints ignored.

Pledging to change the "broader climate" at the academy, the Air Force removed the current leadership and promised to provide a "safe, secure" environment for cadets.

"(It) comes in the wake of a series of reports of sexual assault at the Colorado Springs, Colorado, institution," said an Air Force statement announcing the changes.

The academy's superintendent, Lt. Gen. John Dallager, and its second-in-command, Brig. Gen. Taco Gilbert, along with the vice commandant, Col. Robert Eskridge and the commander of cadet training, Col. Laurie Slavec, would leave the academy.

The Air Force nominated Maj. Gen. John Rosa to replace Dallager, who will retire, and Brig. Gen. Johnny Welda to succeed Gilbert, who was assigned to the Pentagon. Two women will also join the leadership team.

Nearly 60 cases of sexual assault or harassment have been reported at the school over the last decade and many of the women claimed their complaints were not taken seriously.

Secretary of the Air Force James Roche said the sexual assault problems predated the current leadership and he stressed Gilbert and Dallager were not responsible.

"Still, change must occur and a new leadership team to implement these changes is in the best interest of the academy and the Air Force," said Roche.

At a Senate committee hearing, Roche assured lawmakers the Air Force was doing everything it could to make the academy a secure place for all cadets.

"We first and foremost have to make the first steps so that the families of these young women coming in June can believe that their daughters are OK," said Roche. "And also that the families of the male cadets can believe that due process is going to be applied in all cases."

Sen. Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, said he hoped the Air Force would bring in credible parties to restore the integrity and reputation of the academy.

Air Force chief of staff, Gen. John Jumper, who has two daughters in the Air Force, said he had written to the parents of incoming cadets to assure them of a first-class education.

The Air Force announced new procedures making it easier for women to complain about sexual assault and offering amnesty to cadets who raised sexual assault allegations.

Three military investigations of the academy are being conducted and congressional hearings are being held to hear the response of the women who say they were raped.

The U.S. military has been subject to a string of sex and rape scandals in the past decade. The Navy had the 1991 "Tailhook" sexual harassment scandal in which 140 male Navy and Marine officers were accused of abusing 90 women at a meeting in Las Vegas.

The Army has also had a high-profile case involving the rape of female recruits by male drill sergeants.

A recent report showed that one-third of former military women treated by Veterans Affairs medical centers reported rape or attempted rape during their military careers.

Researchers at the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center said their study, published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine this month, found a prevalence across the military of sexual assault and harassment.