Roasted Eggplant Soup

1. Start with The Stock.

2. Cut 1 or 2 eggplants (~1.5 lbs) in half, brush with oil, 450 deg. oven 20 minutes w/cut side up. 1 large red pepper (halved & seeded), 1 spanish or vidalia onion (halved, not peeled), brush with oil, add to oven at that 20 minute mark. Continue to roast all for another 20 minutes. Peel the onion, chop all veggies coarsely & throw into the stock. (Leave the skin on the eggplant.)

3. Cook it all for an hour, partially covered, low simmer, with a fresh sprig of thyme. Process in batches in blender or processor, until you see fine speckles (not completely smooth)

4. serve with fresh croutons & a dollop of homemade garlic mayo (standard or vegan).

YUM. Eat it and be transported.

Adapted from The Greens veggie cookbook.

Soup Stock

onion, black beans, garlic, chard stems & leaves, carrots, 8 c water, sauteed & then simmered to reduce to 6 c water, then smooshed in a sieve, stock retained & veggies headed for Staten Island Landfill (if no composting garden nearby).

Bush v. Cheney

Sherlyn Gay Stolberg has drawn an interesting juxtaposition of the differences between Bush's brand-new reflective, candid mood and Cheney's unflagging bombast.

The difference in tone, friends and advisers say, reflects a split over Mr. Bush’s second-term foreign policy, which Mr. Cheney resisted as too dovish. It also reveals their divergent approaches to post-White House life. Mr. Bush, who is planning a public policy center in Dallas, is trying to shape his legacy by offering historians a glimpse of his thinking, while Mr. Cheney, primarily concerned about the terrorist threat, is setting the stage for a role as a standard-bearer for conservatives on national security.

I wonder whether Cheney will find many adherents in the post-Bush/Cheney era. From what I've gleaned in my readings of Conservative analysis, well, "I don't really think many Conservatives are hitching their wagon to your star, Dick."

Let's see: Spend a trillion dollars fighting a war for the past six years (a war whose very premise collapsed within the first few months), engender a heretofore unknown depth of hatred towards our country making it difficult to negotiate any issue to our advantage, give no-bid contracts in the most astounding act of cronyism and insider illegality ever to companies to which you have strong ties only to have it uncovered that they are defrauding our country and wasting our money and doing a really bad job in many cases, and spread our troops so thin and abuse their willingness to serve to such a degree that our military power is teetering. And, a full seven years after 9/11, only a miniscule percentage of incoming shipping containers are inspected, the Federal budget is so shot they're gonna have to take police back off the streets and defund Homeland Security programs, and that immensely sad gaping hole in my beloved downtown Manhattan, a site that was an engine of American competitiveness, profitability, and power -- well, today, seven years later, it is .... a sad gaping hole!

Pardon me for shouting, but WHAT DID ANY ACTION CHENEY TRUMPETED AND INFLUENCED HAVE TO DO WITH (1) CONSERVATIVISM, OR (2) NATIONAL SECURITY?

Most Chilling Quote of 2008 Award: Dick Cheney

In an exit interview, when asked to reflect back on the decisions of the Bush/Cheney administration (starting the war in Iraq, using waterboarding on detainees, holding persons not charged with any crime in Guantánamo, and I'd use up all the space on the World Wide Web if I attempted to complete my list), our soon to be Ex Veep said:

“I feel very good about what we did,” the vice president told The Washington Times, adding, “If I was faced with those circumstances again, I’d do exactly the same thing.”

Man on Wire!!

If you don't know who Philippe Petit is, you should. If you know who he is and why he became quite well known 24 years ago, but you have never seen the story of how the hell he accomplished his brilliant "art crime", and/or have never seen the footage of that remarkable morning, see Man On Wire.

Preferably see it on the big screen while you can if you live within feasible distance of the two (yes, only two) theaters in the country where it is now playing. In downtown Manhattan, it's playing thru Thurs 12/25 several times a day at the Sunshine Cinema, and then through the 1st there will be two showings per day around lunchtime. It's also playing at the Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco.

Philippe Petit is my hero and that is not a facile declaration. When it comes to naming heros, I heed the Grail Knight telling me, "Choose wisely." Petit is a special soul on earth at this time. I speak not only of the dazzling beauty of his artform and his sheer guts and willingness to live life instead of simply attempting to avoid death for a bunch of decades. I am in awe of the sheer poetry of his beauty, his speech, his bearing, his being.

Quote of the day: What's Hard

From an interview in May 2008, "Tom Waits True Confessions":

Q: What’s hard for you?

A: Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. Math is hard. Reading a map. Following orders. Carpentry. Electronics. Plumbing. Remembering things correctly. Straight lines. Sheet rock. Finding a safety pin. Patience with others. Ordering in Chinese. Stereo instructions in German.

Historical Figures: Edward Cave

An early bootstrapping publisher who, it seems, invented the periodical magazine format for distributing information. . From Wikipedia ...

The son of a cobbler, Cave was born in Newton near Rugby, Warwickshire and attended the grammar school there, but was expelled after being accused of stealing from the headmaster. He worked at a variety of jobs, including timber merchant, reporter and printer. He conceived the idea of a periodical that would cover every topic the educated public was interested in, from commerce to poetry, and tried to convince several London printers and booksellers to take up the idea. When no one showed any interest, Cave took on the task by himself. The Gentleman's Magazine was launched in 1731 and soon became the most influential and most imitated periodical of its time. It also made Cave wealthy.

Some info on The Gentleman's Magazine:

The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January, 1731. The original complete title was The Gentleman's Magazine: or, Trader's monthly intelligencer. Cave's innovation was to create a monthly digest of news and commentary on any topic the educated public might be interested in, from commodity prices to Latin poetry. It carried original content from a stable of regular contributors, as well as extensive quotes and extracts from other periodicals and books. Cave, who edited The Gentleman's Magazine under the pen name "Sylvanus Urban", was the first to use the term "magazine" (meaning "storehouse") for a periodical. The iconic illustration of St John's Gate on the front of each issue (occasionally updated over the years) depicted Cave's home, in effect, the magazine's 'office'.

Cave also had an eye for talent: he hired the young Samuel Johnson as a writer after Johnson had to drop out of Oxford (for lack of money).

Arabama

The NY Times today published a collection of blog entries from Arab countries:

The Skeptic, Egypt (elijahzarwan.net/blog)

A new day dawned in Cairo today. As it does every day.

And it started as it always does: with birds, schoolchildren and car horns. No national holiday here.

I’m looking forward to going out in the streets to hear the reaction. The best reaction I’ve heard so far: “Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job.”

Bah humbug. I confess I’m moved.

Journalist of the Week Award:Pat Buchanan

Yup, you heard me right. Pat Buchanan . Here are some snips from "Where Did Bush Go Wrong?:

After losing control of the Senate and 30 House seats in 2006, the GOP is bracing for losses of six to nine in the Senate, and two dozen to three dozen additional seats in the House.

If the party “were a dog food,” says Rep. Tom Davis, “they would take us off the shelf.”

... Two-thirds of Americans now believe the Iraq war a mistake. Yet, all but a few Republicans backed the war. At the time of “Mission Accomplished!” in May 2003, the nation gave Bush a 90 percent approval rating, as his father had after Desert Storm.

... How many Republicans have repudiated the Bush Doctrine that got us into Iraq—the belief that only by making the world democratic can we keep America secure and free?

... In Afghanistan, we are entering the eighth year of war with victory further away than ever.

... These two wars helped to cripple the Bush presidency and end the GOP ascendancy. Yet, at the highest levels of the party, one hears no serious questioning of the ideology that produced these wars. McCain has pledged to stay in Iraq until “victory” and send 10,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Nor have Republicans objected to the U.S. air strikes that have killed hundreds of Afghans, or the Predator strikes that have inflamed Pakistan or the helicopter raid into Syria that humiliated Damascus and enraged the population. If Republicans disagree with these policies and actions, their voices are muted.

... The GOP needs to confront the truth: The failure of the Bush presidency lies not in a failed execution of policy but in the policies themselves and the neoconservative ideology that informed them.

Yet, still, the party remains in denial, refusing to come to terms with the causes of its misfortune. One expects they will be given the time and opportunity for reflection soon.

“The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves.”

Battling our U.S.olipsism

Let us not forget: there is a rest-of-the-world, including places our country has made a mess of.... meanwhile the news today and tomorrow and next week will be only a slicing and dicing our own election results. Evening news anchors had nothing to say about any other part of the world the past few days... meanwhile a young Somalian girl was stoned to death for being raped!!!!, and children live like this in Sadr City (pic above is taken from this LA Times slideshow).

My Fellow Americans --
Everything Obama said on election night about unity, about the health of the whole depending on the health of its parts, applies to our entire human race. A quick check of an image of our Earth as seen from space will verify that, yup, still no lines are actually drawn on it dividing us from any other humans except in our own convenient way of thinking about things.

Let's work to stay informed about the condition of beings on the whole planet. And let's care about it. And do something about it. And talk about it. And insist it is taught in our schools, and sees some exposure in our television programming.

Kudos to Michigan Voters

The results are in. Michigan voters support Proposal 1—which would legalize the use of medical marijuana—by a margin of almost two-to-one.

63% of Michigan's voters say they supported the proposal, while 37% opposed.

Michigan will join 12 other states which have already legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes.

The proposal was supported by several organizations, including the Michigan Nurses Association. It was opposed by many health and law enforcement groups, such Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.

Police Lied about London's Sean Bell

From BBC News:

Police misled a pathologist into thinking Jean Charles de Menezes "vaulted" over a Tube barrier before being shot dead, an inquest has heard.

Dr Kenneth Shorrock was told the Brazilian jumped over a barrier before "stumbling" down an escalator.

The pathologist said he was given the wrong information during a "walk-through" with officers.

Mr de Menezes was killed in 2005 in south London by police who mistook him for a failed 21 July suicide bomber.

The Brazilian was shot seven times in the head at close range on 22 July 2005...

RIP Madelyn!!

Barack's grandma Madelyn Dunham passed yesterday, made my heart physically hurt for Obama. Can you imagine, losing the last caretaker of your youth, effectively he was orphaned YESTERDAY, and will likely be elected President of the United States TODAY.

I cannot fathom this. What a convergence of events. Big things happening in the Universe. He may be about to become OUR caretaker of sorts. Wow.

This is his grandma hugging him on his H.S. graduation. Grandpa Stanley standing next to him:



I know they're all cheering him from Heaven! I know they're surrounding him in an orb of incredible light. Mama Ann, Grandma and Grandpa are all fine, I just feel so RAW for the load Barack himself is called upon to carry at the moment. Perhaps one of those Purifying moments in life.

Millions and millions of just such loving hugs from all of us.

Let it come down, No, Wait

HuffPost has a great slideshow up called Tears for Obama (click on photo), tears of joy, awe, grief and relief over the course of this campaign. My heart anticipates rushing out in the streets some time around midnight, shouting with elation together with my fellow Manhattanites (probably 80% Pro-O). My head, though, admonishes me to be neutral, that anything can happen, to disengage the heart...

"Watching Obama accept the Democratic nomination, Times Square, August 28th"

London's Sean Bell

From BBC News:

A commuter who was sitting near Jean Charles de Menezes on a Tube train has told his inquest that police gave no warning before killing him.

Anna Dunwoodie said she believed officers were "out of control" and gave off a "sense of panic" before shooting.

She claimed that the innocent 27-year-old appeared calm as a gun was held to his head.

Mr de Menezes was killed in 2005 in south London by police who mistook him for a failed 21 July suicide bomber.

Ms Dunwoodie was sitting two or three seats to the left of Mr de Menezes when he boarded the train at Stockwell Tube Station, south London on 22 July 2005.

She told the inquest that, at the time, she thought the firearms officers pursuing Mr de Menezes were members of a gang.

He was shot seven times in the head at point-blank range after being mistaken for failed bomber Hussain Osman.

(Italics added.) Wow. I would think parents in families with Muslim-looking genealogy and Mulsim-sounding last names might identify enormously, these days, with parents of Black youth in the U.S. of A.

Kudos to Obama's staff AND ALL THOSE VOLUNTEERS!

The Washington Post reports today:

With one day to go, Democrat Barack Obama appears to have rebuffed recent GOP efforts to label him as "too liberal" or too big a gamble.

The new Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll puts Obama well out in front over Republican John McCain and finds that Obama has firmly reestablished his advantage on handling the economy, beaten back a challenge on taxes and has an edge in terms of perceptions about which candidate would better deal with an unexpected major crisis.

Job well done, y'all! Thanks from the rest of us who did not have the time or resources!

Yes on Prop. 1 in Michigan

Heart wrenching testimony to the need for legal medical marijuana:


TAH! to The Daily Dish

Syrian Raid Ripples

While the media feeds us a one-course meal of election news, over and over and over, who's minding the "Impact of US Policies" shop around the rest of the planet? Almost nobody. So between now and perhaps a week from now when election and post-election fervor finally starts to simmer down, I'll be sharing some spicy international dishes on this blog:

Dateline Nov 2, 2008, Damascus:

(Summary from the front page of Asia Times) The United States raid into Syria has upset every key actor in Iraq. The government, beyond being embarrassed at not being consulted, has come under even more pressure from Shi'ite parties not to sign a security agreement with the United States. The Sunni Awakening Councils are reconsidering their cooperation in fighting insurgents, while powerful tribes which virtually control the border are overnight turning anti-American. As for Syria, it has the power to cause havoc in Iraq.

Read Sami Moubayed's full article.

Obama and McCain Share a Hero

From David Margolick in today's NYT, Papa’s Gift to the Fire-in-the-Belly Crowd:

Robert Jordan is a left-wing radical, or was modeled after several of them. He palled around with terrorists, or at least people whom many Americans, of his era and beyond, so thought. His specialty is blowing things up for a cause. He is at minimum a socialist, someone so eager to spread wealth around that he’d lose his life to do it.

Robert Jordan is also honorable, steadfast, selfless, determined, stoic, generous, tolerant, courageous, conscientious, forgiving, altruistic, tender, wise, loyal, independent, taciturn, disciplined, dutiful, patient, exacting, empathetic, idealistic, introspective, charismatic and handsome. No wonder the beautiful Maria falls for him the first time she sees him, and the earth moves beneath the two the first time they make love.

Robert Jordan is the hero of Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” an American fighting Franco’s Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. And despite his radical roots, he’s a literary sensation during this election season. Senator Barack Obama told Rolling Stone that Hemingway’s novel, published in 1940, is one of the three books that most inspired him. As for Senator John McCain, few men, real or fictional, have influenced him as much as Jordan.

Iran and our next Pres

World Press points to an article, "US blowback in Iran's elections" by Hossein Askari in Asia Times that analyzes the possible influence of our Presidential election outcome on Iran's next election. *

In Iranian eyes, one candidate, Democratic Senator Barack Obama, believes in dialogue and peaceful resolution of conflicts. While the other, Republican Senator John McCain, is belligerent and endorses the military option. The leaders in Tehran see Ahmadinejad better positioned to tackle a president McCain, while a total break from Ahmadinejad would afford Iran the best opportunity for rapprochement with a president Obama. It is that clear cut.

... If there is a president McCain, there will be a second term for Ahmadinejad. If there is a president Obama, the next Iranian president will be a moderate, soft-spoken and Western-appealing individual, one who is not weighed down by Ahmadinejad's baggage and who can start afresh with the US and achieve favorable results for Iran with an Obama administration. In that event, the leader would come from Qalibaf, Najafi, Aref and Nahavandian.

The Supreme Leader and leading contenders in Iran will be watching the US presidential results as never before.

* Note: While the dateline of the article is Hong Kong, Askari is "professor of international business and international affairs at George Washington University" as noted at the end of the article.

worldpress.org -- required reading

I was so sad the day the print format of World Press magazine folded, several years ago, and on balance was so glad the day I discovered it had been resuscitated as an online publication. World Press organizes its content around a topic, and presents a selection of articles and analyses from around the planet on that topic, from all kinds of viewpoints.

The "news" put on our plates by American media outlets is phenomenally solipsistic, particularly around election time. Pop quiz for those who digest only the news available from American newspapers and TV: "What's happening in Iran? Czech Republic? Cambodia? Afghanistan, even?" I'd wager you have no clue. The better-informed among American-news consumers might be able to cite a sound bite, and that's it. (Note: I'm including myself in the huge group of Americans currently under-informed on world news.)

Are we even aware enough of international opinions on our ongoing election, and do we have any sense of the impact on our global relations of a President McCain vs. a President Obama? NOT. Instead, all available minutes of news-time on the US airwaves (TV being a much more solipsistic medium here than print) treat us to the SAME 40 minutes or so of today's actual news (and bullshit non-news) repeated over and over.

If you believe that it might be important, or at least interesting, to know what is being thought and said around the world, check out worldpress.org. And if you like what they do, consider sending them a donation!

Blog Title of the Day: Andrew Sullivan

The Dish sez "Holy Shit!" regarding the Kos poll that has McCain and Obama in a dead heat IN ARIZONA!!

Appalachian History: Every woman in my place is bound to feel blue too

Appalachian History: Every woman in my place is bound to feel blue too

"I get full o' good liquor, walk the streets all night,
I put my man out if he don't act right.

Wild women don't worry,
Wild Women Don't Get the Blues"

I've always loved that Ida Cox song, even used to have a "Wild Women Don't Get the Blues" bumper sticker, was happy to discover this article (and eclectic, well-researched, interesting blog!)

Obama Shining Knight for TV Networks

NYT reported yesterday that the "infomercial on behalf of Mr. Obama was a smashing ratings success on Wednesday night, proving to be more popular than even the final game of the World Series — and last season’s finale of “American Idol.”

Well, I'm surprised that the networks were surprised:

“I was shocked by the number Obama was able to draw,” said Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS. “It’s just a stunning number.”

On CBS, the infomercial was seen by about 8.6 million viewers, a number that topped the show CBS usually runs on Wednesday night at 8, “Old Christine,” which averages about 7.2 million.

But this is the part that is shocking:

On NBC, the disparity was even greater. Its regular show there, “Knight Rider,” has been averaging just under 7 million viewers. Mr. Obama pulled in 9.8 million for his half-hour special.

Seven million people watch Knight Rider? No accounting for taste, as they say.

Obama Devotion

At yesterday's drenched rally in PA, Obama shared this allegory:

John McCain has ridden shotgun as George Bush has driven our economy towards a cliff, and now he wants to take the wheel and step on the gas.

My fave pics of that rally this morning are in the NY Times:

by Doug Mills:



... and by Damon Winter:



And a sampler of The Closing Argument:

Pennsylvania, that’s what hope is about – the belief deep down inside us of us that we can do better than we’re doing right now, that there better days ahead, if we’re willing to work for it. If we’re willing to shed our fears and our doubts, if we’re willing to reach down deep inside us, when times are tough, when it’s cold, when it’s rainy, when it’s hard - that’s when we stand up, that’s when we reach for a better future. And if all of you are willing to be just as determined as you are today, if all of you go out on election day, if all of you get your friends and your neighbors, your co-workers, if you are determined to bring about a better America, then I promise you this, we will not just win Pennsylvania, we will win this general election and you can I together, we’re gonna change this country and change this world.

Spread Gen-We Like A Virus

How can an old lady like me get this out to everyone under 30? I can't. But if I am reaching even one person under 30, maybe you can help spread this message like a virus. The best I can do is sit here feeling somewhat exonerated for having lived a life in opposition to the version of the American Dream that my Boomer generation ended up pursuing after they forgot all about Peace Love and Woodstock....

Comment of the Day:

Michael Crowley posted this with the caption "America, 2008" on TNR:

[photo since removed from tnr.com -- it had depicted a small blond boy fist-bumping with Obama standing next to a limousine on airport tarmac]

A little ways down, "williamyard" comments in a perfect parody of the ignorant electorate who so irk me:

What's the big deal? The Terrorist fist-bumping yet another albino Negro midget? Tell me something I don't already know.

Let me guess: the albino Negro midget's father came from "Kenya"--as in the People's Republic of Kenya.

How many times has the albino Negro midget registered to vote? Four? Six? It's anybody's guess.

Ten-to-one he's connected with all that offshore money pouring into the Obama campaign.

Methinks the midget won't be so keen on fist-bumping the Terrorist once he finds out his taxes are doubling so William Ayers can have convicted Negro felons teach highschoolers how to perform forced abortions on their Christian mothers under portraits of Malcolm X and Timothy Leary.

I've tried to point all this out, time and time again, but the MSM has ignored me. Meanwhile, CBS infiltrates Sarah Palin's campaign staff and her favorability ratings start tanking. And you won't hear CBS reporting on Obama's plans to pardon Charles Manson, now, will you? Coincidence?

I read this morning that Ahmadenijad has taken ill...just a little over a week before the U.S. election. How conveeeenient.

Tampa Bay hides the "Devil" in its name, Nate Silver predicts they'll win 200 games, meanwhile every Beltway "expert" is now quoting Fivethirtyeight, and the "Rays" are in the World Series.

Connect the fucking dots, people.

Wanting to know/read more about/by williamyard, I clicked on his username and got a great late-night style laugh off this one:

No, the campaign is not about the issues. Nor should it be.

As we can all agree, if elected President, B. Hussein Obama will in short order appoint Cindy Sheehan Secretary of Defense and will.i.am Ambassador to Iran, and summarily enslave Hillary delegates and force them to paint the White House black. It's true, because I read it on the Internet.

Moreover, there is nothing in the United States Constitution that prohibits a phantom from becoming President; thus there's nothing to stop John McCain from revealing that he is in fact Casper the Friendly Ghost and that he has arrived to save America from the Illinois Infidel and appoint Joe Lieberman as our next Barney Rubble.

The GOP is already in talks with Major League Baseball to distribute Sarah Palin Bobbleheads at this year's Fall Classic.

You laugh. Once upon a time, you probably laughed at the Tampa Bay Rays. They exorcised the Devil, and now look where they are.

Laugh or cry: exactly how is McCain not Bush??

Fave Bloggers: Alex Pareene

I encountered Pareene for the first time today in my meanderings around the Web, and he instantly hit my list of Fave Bloggers.

Sampler, from "Wait, What's Up with ACORN?":

Matt Drudge, who controls your news with an iron opera glove, is leading today with the news that ACORN registered Mickey Mouse to vote. Ha ha ha. Honestly, what the hell's the deal with the ACORN story and why are right-wingers already clinging to it like guns and religion? Sigh. We'll try to explain.

What is ACORN??
An evil group that exists to organize poor people into a violent militia and overthrow the government via "voting." Or basically a lobbying group for low- and middle-income families, either one....

What do they do?
They started as a radical group dedicated to getting welfare recipients and underemployed non-welfare recipients together to demand socialist things like free lunches for kids and emergency room care. Now they lobby Democrats for terrorist things like raising the minimum wage and forcing the government to subsidize affordable housing. Also they organize voter registration drives....

What are my talking points for when crazy relatives argue that ACORN stole the election?
...More importantly, the election can't be stolen if it hasn't happened yet, and voter registration fraud does not explain in any way a double digit lead for a candidate in national tracking polls. Like, wtf, how are you making this argument, are you slow?...

Good Republicans (yes many do exist!)

Hero of the Day: Colonel Vandeveld; Villian of the Day: The Pentagon

The New York Times reports today that charges have been dropped against five Guantánamo detainees for lack of evidence, and that the prosecutor in all five cases has stepped down, "saying there were systemic problems with the fairness of the military prosecutions there":

The Pentagon’s decision to dismiss the cases comes after the former prosecutor, Colonel Vandeveld, said in a military commission filing that he had ethics questions about prosecution procedures for notifying the defense about information favorable to detainees. He called the procedures “appalling” and “incomplete and unreliable.”

The Pentagon earns Villian of the Day status because even without any charges pending against the detainees, they will not be released. (Friendly Combatant reminded me, "That's nothing new," but I still confer V of the D status on our military leaders and/or the White House officials giving them such directives).

Honorable mention award for Hero of the Day goes to Reprieve and to other organizations who are providing legal defense to Guantánamo detainees.

Laugh or cry: Comedy Central on Wasilla

Sullivan's face of the day

Pop quiz: Which man can you see being President of our United States? (Click entry title)

Appalachians for Obama

This is rather long but so sweet, I wish I knew who these folks were so we could all send them our thanks. Lyrics will scroll past at the end.



I love how she flicks a piece of popcorn to the dog every now & then ...

The Only Idea That Makes Any Sense

There may be a bailout plan that both Liberals and Conservatives could live with....

For the past week I have found myself wondering why nobody has been talking about saving the credit markets by means of making good on delinquent mortgages. This seems such an obvious fix, and I was gratified to see the idea written up by Jonathan G.S. Koppell and William N. Goetzmann ("The Trickle-Up Bailout") in today's Washington Post. I would think it an easier sell to Conservatives for the taxpayers to loan money to private citizens with real property as the collateral, as opposed to merely throwing freshly printed dollars at bad paper.

But there are two enormous additional benefits to the idea that are not mentioned in the article. First, by slowing or stopping the rate at which homes are being vacated, property values in American communities will stop hemorrhaging and perhaps even recover to some extent. Second, by taking action to prevent wide-scale homelessness and destitution as a result of the mortgage crisis, America would not only be in concordance with our fundamental sense of humaneness, but will also spare itself untold further costs, which I also have not heard considered in the ongoing debates.

A worker without a home is unlikely to hold his or her job for long and we will see unemployment costs rise. Families without anywhere to go will need shelter. Children dispossessed of their homes, with unemployed or severely financially distressed parents, need free school lunches, medical services, and, it is likely, more educational and psychological/emotional support from society at large.

Bail out Wall Street alone, and our next crisis will be a scenario reminiscent of the depths of the Great Depression, complete with caravans, shanty-towns and mass hunger. Loan money to homeowners, and not only are the taxpayers more likely to see some return on their money but we will avert to a huge extent the costs that nobody is talking about. And just maybe feel a lot better about our collective character as well.

And we were supposed to do What with Social Security?

Now let me get this straight --

Conservative Republicans have cried for years for that the American system of Social Security should be drastically altered to allow folks to "make their own decisions with their own money" and invest in the stock market rather than pay taxes into the kitty. I guess the idea is that if you make an unusually bad investment with your retirement money your eventual impoverishment in old age is your own damned fault and you can live in the dark and eat cat food.

And now we're being told that the taxpayers must bail out the markets or folks' pensions and retirement funds will be severely affected.

So, which is it? That taxes protect the right of our nation's elderly to live out their lives in decent conditions, or that folks have the right to choose, and will bear the responsibility of having chosen, their own investments?

And in other news ...

As the high drama in Washington consumes all available news bites today and the media feeds us their buy-in on the idea that we must bail out the credit markets (while doing next-to-nothing to keep Americans in their homes and their communities intact) ...

... I'd be surprised to see this rather startling, and refreshing, bit of news from Israel earn any air-time on American networks and cable news. The New York Times did give the story a few inches:

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published on Monday that Israel must withdraw from nearly all of the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem to attain peace with the Palestinians and that any occupied land it held onto would have to be exchanged for the same quantity of Israeli territory....

“What I am saying to you now has not been said by any Israeli leader before me,” Mr. Olmert told the newspaper Yediot Aharonot in the interview on the occasion of the Jewish new year, observed from Monday evening till Wednesday evening. “The time has come to say these things.”

He said that traditional Israeli defense strategists had learned nothing from past experiences and that they seemed stuck in the considerations of the 1948 war of independence.

Olmert was, of course, Prime Minister during the attacks on Lebanon in 2006 that resulted in severely under-reported (in the U.S., anyway) demolition of the country's infrastructure and the suffering of so many human beings. Since then, having stepped down after allegations of corruption launched a couple of investigations into his activities, he has apparently undergone a deep look into his own conscience and has begun to look reality in the face, without blinking this time.

“With them, it is all about tanks and land and controlling territories and controlled territories and this hilltop and that hilltop,” he said. “All these things are worthless.”

He added, “Who thinks seriously that if we sit on another hilltop, on another hundred meters, that this is what will make the difference for the State of Israel’s basic security?”

Having visited many parts of Israel and the West Bank in the mid-80s, I can report that most of the Israeli Jews I met just wanted to live in a peaceful two-state region, opposed the West Bank settlements, and were in favor of withdrawal from occupied territories. They themselves described the major political problem of their country to be the extent to which a minority of Right-wing religious extremists control the Knesset. One wonders when the people of Israel will finally take to the streets and demand Fairness For All and real movement towards peace. Perhaps Olmert's interview published Monday in Yehediot Ahronot can help ignite such a movement.

To my fellow tribesmen: L'Shanah Tovah. May this year 5769 be truly New.

To every human: Shalom.

Political Tidbit of the Day

... OK, it was really published yesterday, but I got a sad chuckle out of it. Jim Rutenberg in a straight news piece in yesterday's NY Times:

The Wall Street Journal posted an advertisement on its Web site 12 hours early that showed Mr. McCain proudly looking into the distance. “McCain Wins Debate!” read the text.

Ah, the state of U.S. politics. Perennially amazing to me is the gullibility (and, therefore, culpability) of the electorate who -- given that the amount of money such ads cost is only spent after market research into their effectiveness -- are swayed by such 3-word print-bites instead of watching the damned debate and deciding for themselves.

Journalist of the Day: re Mr Smith goes to Washington

The best article I've seen thus far explaining McCain's decision to land in D.C. (one can see the orange jumpsuit, the deck of the aircraft carrier, the Mission Accomplished banner ... oh, wait, that was that other macho American) and then pretend to have been acting in the interest of The People ...

Frank Rich in today's NYT. Warning, Rich is pissed. Perhaps not appropriate material for folks who prefer their politics air-brushed. Here's a sample:

The question is why would a man who forever advertises his own honor toy so selfishly with our national interest at a time of crisis. I’ll leave any physiological explanations to gerontologists — if they can get hold of his complete medical records — and any armchair psychoanalysis to the sundry McCain press acolytes who have sorrowfully tried to rationalize his erratic behavior this year. The other answers, all putting politics first, can be found by examining the 24 hours before he decided to “suspend” campaigning and swoop down on the Capitol to save America from the Sunnis or the Shia, or whoever perpetrated all those credit-default swaps.

To put these 24 hours in context, you must remember that McCain not only knows little about the economy but that he has not previously expressed any urgency about its meltdown. It was on Sept. 15 — the day after his former idol Alan Greenspan pronounced the current crisis a “once-in-a-century” catastrophe — that McCain reaffirmed for the umpteenth time that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong.” As recently as Tuesday he had not yet even read the two-and-a-half-page bailout proposal first circulated by Hank Paulson last weekend. “I have not had a chance to see it in writing,” he explained. (Maybe he was waiting for it to arrive by Western Union instead of PDF.)

Photo of the Day

The sheer beauty of carbon free energy.

Quote of the Day

The inimitable Tom Wolfe on the obsolescence of Wall Street:

The Exchange is already an anachronism, like Broadway. Everything is done by computer today. Hanging out on the Floor of the Exchange is like hanging out at OTB.

Read the rest of his Masterful answers to the question, "Where are the Masters of the Universe now?"

Journalist of the Day Award: Alessandra Stanley

In her TV Watch article in the New York Times, Stanley writes:

It wasn’t a television blackout of John McCain; it was worse: split-screen contrasts that at times made it seem as if Barack Obama was on a state visit while back home his opponent chafed at the perks and privileges of an incumbent commander in chief.

On Tuesday, Mr. McCain held a town hall-style meeting in Rochester, N.H. In the shadow of the ancient Temple of Hercules in Amman, Jordan, Mr. Obama solemnly described his vision for peace in the region while standing at a lectern, the Middle East sprawling out behind him. Reporters were cordoned in front of him like the White House press corps — except that an audio snag kept their questions inaudible.

All three cable news networks carried Mr. Obama's news conference live and in full. They showed only parts of Mr. McCain's forum and focused mostly on his reaction to Mr. Obama's statements. Even Fox News broke away from Mr. McCain midevent to cover the rescue of a bear cub wounded in a California fire and nicknamed Lil' Smokey.

Read her article here

Journalist of the Day Award: Arianna

From "Tell Me Again, Why Is Obama Being Popular With Our Allies a Bad Thing?":

And here was Gloria Borger on CNN, responding to Wolf Blitzer's assertion that Obama seemed to be on top of his game by pulling out the Straight Talk talking points (and leaving logic and rational thinking in a pile on the studio floor):

...as the McCain campaign points out, he can't appear to be seen as running for the president of Europe. He's going to be really cheered in Europe, he's going to give a huge speech. He's going to have a lot of support there. But he's running for the president of the United States. And so they have to walk a very, very fine line here because they don't want to be seen having too many adoring people after him in Europe because he's running for president of the United States.

What do Borger and the McCain campaign think would play better in Missouri, Obama getting off the plane in Germany and having the locals throw tomatoes at him? Would that endear him to the people in Middle America -- who, in McCain World, are like an insecure girlfriend, panicked by just the thought of someone else finding their guy attractive?

Oceana's "Ministry of Love" Right Here in Cuba

Washington Post -- A Blind Eye to Guantanamo?

I've recently been re-reading 1984. It made me cry last night as I came upon the torture that prisoners (many innocent) were subjected to. We live in an Orwellian world. Think about that. Will you continue to participate in doublethink?

Sorry, You Can't Take the Sandbox Home With You

Washington Post: Maliki Suggests U.S. Troop Timetable

Iraq's new government should determine Iraq’s future. I'm glad to see that steps are being taken. Of course, I am concerned about the stability of the country, but nobody's saying the US should pull out all troops tomorrow. They're working on a timetable, and I'm sure that if the ground situation calls for it, Iraqi government will accept our helping hand. To stay in Iraq for the next 100 years would be an act of imperialism. Permanence of US bases on Iraqi soil would constitute, I believe, a quartering of soldiers, something the US Bill of Rights strictly prohibits here on American soil. The Declaration of Independence listed among the many usurpations by the king of England:

1. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws…

We cannot continue to hold troops in Iraq indefinitely and pretend to control their affairs. Iraqis are their own people. While they may be in need of resources we are (somewhat) capable of offering, they can make their own decisions. They’re not stupid just because their country is built on sand.

2. For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us…

I think you can see how this correlates to the “War”

3. For protecting them [troops], by a Mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders that they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States…

The Administration doesn’t even bother with mock trials. Do some research on BlackWater and other US contracted commando/mercenary organizations. Not to mention Abu-Ghraib type situations.

4. He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

Oil fields anybody? How about the fact that US forces were totally ill prepared for the initial invasion (which everybody who was anybody knew) and allowed countless precious artifacts to be plundered that dated back to the birth of civilization? And of course we’re killing innocents, they look just like the “insurgents.”
(Aside: Isn’t it funny that we call the enemy the “insurgents” when we’re the ones committing to a surge of troops entering the sandbox?

5. He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.

Again, BlackWater. Waterboarding and other forms of torture were suggested/supported by Cheyney. Don’t let anybody tell you higher-ups in the Administration don’t support torture — they condone it.

6. He has excited domestic Insurrections amongst us

We are responsible for the Iraqi civil war.

So, my message to al-Maliki (if you don’t know who he is, read a fucking newspaper article once in a while):
Be strong. Don’t allow US imperialistic values to bamboozle you. YET, we can be helpful. Meet diplomatically with leaders from the main political groups within Iraq and the leaders of surrounding nations (yes, even Iran). Figure out a plan that will lead to lasting stability, and use the US to your advantage. It will be difficult, there’s no doubt about that, but security is NEVER a reason to give up freedom, and freedom is not something to be trusted in the hands of US government.

Laugh or cry: Scary Treasury Press Conference

Dana Milbanks video-chronicles a press conference led by Assistant Treasury Secretary Phillips Swagel, in his Washington Post column Washington Sketch.



I'd not been familiar with Milbanks' vids before I clicked thru to this one. At first I laughed out loud at this because I thought it was parody. Honestly. Then I sampled a few other of Milbanks' pieces only to realize THIS WAS REAL.

Be scared.

Is It Just Me, Or Is It Hot In Here?

NASA has released a "widget" (that's a Mac OS X thing) that displays "vital signs" of global climate change.

Don't know about you, but I'm scared.

-FC

Gay Marriage Was Decided 197 years ago:Get Over It

**UPDATED: Please forgive my horrible mis-citation. Madison wrote Federalist Papers, not Jefferson. Duh.**

I'm sick and tired of gay marriage being a key issue in politics. Get over it, people!

As a preamble, I feel the need to warn you: I refuse to get into debates about the values and/or downfalls of any one religion. I realize that in discussing morals and base values the line between politics and religion can be blurred. Although I do personally find the religious right offensive, abrasive, and sometimes just plain stupid -- I appreciate the value of faith, and would never attack an individual on the basis of their beliefs. You would think that a faction so often berated for their beliefs would not attack others simply because of their love life. Since when are we a nation of Evangelists?

On that note, a law based solely on religious beliefs would be entirely unconstitutional. Have we forgotten about separation of church and state? Apparently we have. Check out our coinage, our Pledge of Allegiance, the mottos plastered all over federal buildings. I'm sick of it.

Some argue that the words "separation of church and state" never appear in the Constitution, and so there need be no concern over religious rule of law. Alright. How about the 1st amendment?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." It was the foremost concern of our founding fathers -- many of whom (religious themselves) came to the New World to escape intolerance perpetrated by ruling religion elsewhere.

If that's not enough, some may argue that the Constitution does not protect sexual rights. Well...

"The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people" (Amendment IX)

How about the big one?

"...No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the priveleges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws..." (Amendment XIV, Section 1)

I'd like to point out that any ban appearing in a constitutional amendment would be unprecedented and untrue to the original spirit of the document. The Constitution and joined Bill of Rights are intended to protect the civil liberties of the people from institutionalized oppression, not to prohibit so called undesired behavior by individuals. As shown in the Federalist Papers (a series of 85 essays by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay -- designed to grow the support base for the Constitution during the failure of the Articles of Federation) [see www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/], the major goal of the founding fathers was to protect the people from the people, and thus the tyranny inherent in big government. America has been a haven for systematic intolerence only in our worst hours. Why should we revert to the days of segregation and the destruction of civil rights based only upon arbitrary categorical labels?!

If you believe that "it is wrong to be gay," then don't be gay! How is gay marriage hurting the country? If single parents can raise functioning productive citizens, then so can LGBTQ couples. Why is family planning a governmental issue anyway? Laws against murder for example, are devised because the act directly threatens the people. What is the threat of two people in love, who only want an official outlet for it?

I will not even justify the argument that individuals choose to be gay with a counter-argument. I merely ask: Do you choose to be straight? Hypothetically, do you think you would suddenly be aroused by members of the same sex if you chose to be gay?

I've heard people say that "if gay marriage is allowed, polygamy will be next!" This is simply hogwash. First off, I'm not sure how I feel about the intolerance of polygamy. But more importantly, our currently adopted policies concerning marriage are very specifically written for unions of two people. The laws can be immediately put into effect for gay marriage without any changes to policy whatsoever. Multiple marriage (MM- a term which is more PC than polygamy as that only applies to men with many wives and not vice versa), cannot be injected into our system. That would require multitudinous amendments and retractions to current policy, which would most likely take at least a decade to accomplish.

Furthermore, do not permit those who would ban gay marriage to call themselves "conservative."  Conservatism is based on the belief that the government has absolutely no business butting into the people's personal lives. By calling themselves conservative, these haters (for lack of a better modern phrase) are merely trying to trick the public -- most of whom pull the lever for their party members without knowing the issues.

Not too long ago it was illegal for inter-racial couples to marry. I'm sure that there are still people in this country who disagree with that act. I'm also sure that their protest is strongly founded in faith. Does this mean we should ban racial integration again? I thought we've gone over all of this... SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, a ban on gay marriage would be in DIRECT violation of the 14th amendment. By being married, straight couples receive many benefits financially and legally. I don't feel like listing them, so look it up if you don't take my word for it. "Equal protection" as named in the 14th amendment applies to all priveleges and rights allotted to the people. If one receives them, all must receive them. This country was founded on the belief that all political factions should be feared, monitered closely, and protected, whether in the majority OR minority. I've taken this directly from a Madison Federalist Paper (#51 if my memory serves me correctly).

Marriage should not be a legal institution. Let any two people be joined in a civil union, with equal priveleges given to all regardless of color, sex, age (as long as consenting), or any mixture thereof. If a couple wishes to have a ceremony outside of City Hall, let them use whatever place of worship that will have them.

So STFU already.

Did I miss anything?

Now *this* is Intelligent Design

It's been a helluva long time since man started walking upright. It's high time for the next phase in our evolution. Snapped from a NYC biking vid called "Rumble 4". Biking as exercise, recreation, as a key (not "alternative"!!!) method of transportation, as a sport, and as an extreme sport ... is going to become a regular topic on inkback.

F.C.

We've doubled our writing staff today.

Friendly Combatant is an individual of strong opinions and unique perspective, with whom I've corresponded enough that I finally invited them* to post to inkback. F.C. has their* own reasons, I suppose, for wanting to remain completely anonymous. I cannot tell you who F.C. is because I don't know!

This will be fun ...

* No, I am not illiterate. I choose to use plural pronouns rather than "him or her" kind of constructions. For more on this, read Wif, Wer, They, Their (link in sidebar).

Quote of the Day

"I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston telephone book than by the 2,000 members of the Harvard faculty."
-- William F. Buckley

TAH! to Maureen Dowd.

Zen Mastery Pills, No Need To Practice

This ad seen on my Facebook page just now so perfectly illustrates how far The Western Mind is from grasping what "zen" is about. Maybe it's just me, but I laughed outloud when I saw this:

Zen Meditatation [sic]
"You told me I'd meditate like a Zen monk, literally at the touch of a button, and it's true! This is like meditation on steriods!"

This is like those herbal diet pills that make you lose weight without exercising, and you can eat anything you want, except worse because the whole point of Zen meditation is the *practice*, not *mastery as a ring to grab*. The linked-to site in case you feel the perverse desire to read this tragicomic scam.

thanks for serving your country, now FRY

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/world/middleeast/04electrocute.html

10 Things I Hate About You McCain

MoveOn.org has published 10 well-sourced facts everyone ought to know about McCain. This includes *you*, Hillary Lover Who Contemplates Voting For McCain Out Of A Sense Of Being Cheated.

You are never alone ...

From the New York Times Science section:

The crook of your elbow is not just a plain patch of skin. It is a piece of highly coveted real estate, a special ecosystem, a bountiful home to no fewer than six tribes of bacteria. Even after you have washed the skin clean, there are still one million bacteria in every square centimeter.

read the article ...

another day another dime dropped

A startling sign of how bad the economy is -- according to the New York Times folks anxious for money to pay the bills and buy baby formula have begun breaking the oldest code in the 'hood: "Crimestoppers" tips are pouring in at record numbers.

This seems a measure of economic desperation beyond anything I've yet heard of in my 5 decades walking the planet.

Bob Wails on Hillary the Divider

Bob Herbert on Hillary's comments to USA Today:

The Clintons have never understood how to exit the stage gracefully.

Their repertoire has always been deficient in grace and class. So there was Hillary Clinton cold-bloodedly asserting to USA Today that she was the candidate favored by “hard-working Americans, white Americans,” and that her opponent, Barack Obama, the black candidate, just can’t cut it with that crowd.

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” said Mrs. Clinton.

There is, indeed. There was a name for it when the Republicans were using that kind of lousy rhetoric to good effect: it was called the Southern strategy, although it was hardly limited to the South. Now the Clintons, in their desperation to find some way — any way — back to the White House, have leapt aboard that sorry train.

He can’t win! Don’t you understand? He’s black! He’s black!

Read the rest of Bob's point-blank rant ...

Good luck in W. Va., Barack!

Because you'll need it. This was the state, after all, where (speaking of Voting While Ignorant) many folks believed that the Dems wanted to ban the Bible.

If you don't vote, don't complain; If you're not informed, don't vote!!

It's not about whether voters are college educated or are any particular color. The media have the love of exit polls all wrong.

It's about folks who rely upon hearsay rumors to make the most important decision an American citizen is called upon to make: which lever to pull (or touchscreen button to push -- here in NYC we still have voting machines from the '50s with rows of levers).

It's about folks who do not understand or care about what it takes to keep oneself well-informed, to dig deeper than viral videos and fleeting sound bytes. It's about folks who believe unsourced (or falsely sourced) "forward to everyone you know" emails claiming that a particular candidate is Muslim, or that they voted for/against some piece of legislation, or that they said Kim Jong Il is their hero.

It's about those whose knowledge of what America is really about, and whose memory (if they ever bothered to read) of what the Declaration and Constitution actually say, is so pitifully wrong that they believe the United States was set up as a Straight Christian White nation and that anyone who is not a Straight Christian White person is probably not Patriotic, and is definitely not qualified to represent "us". The ones who think that being any particular religion, or none, ought to disqualify anyone from serving in the U.S. government.

The ones who thought, after hearing Dubya repeat ad nauseum the "9/11" mantra when selling his daddy's used War in Iraq to the nation, that Saddam Hussein had something to do with the attack. (The percentage of Americans who swallowed the hook, the line, the sinker, was staggering.)

The ones who re-elected George H. W.'s Mini-Me in '04 because they really thought he had been acting to make us safer, and that Wiffle-Waffle Kerry had no interest in protecting us.

Indeed the media leaves so many of these mendacities unchallenged or under-exposed, so we can point some of blame for the Mass Stupidity Factor at the networks and other news outlets. But there are also many men, of whatever educational level and whatever color, who go the extra mile to seek multiple sources of news, there are also many who simply click Delete and feel slightly disgusted when they receive an email claiming that Candidate X is a neo-Nazi or a Muslim or Squeezes The Toothpaste In The Middle.

I submit that the folks who vote based on beliefs and rumors spoon-fed to them in spurious emails, in news bytes that would not overtax the attention span of a flea, and in politicians' speeches and press conferences ... should be required to take a Voter IQ Polling Place Entrance Interview (IQ for Informed and therefore Qualified). If you think Obama is a Muslim (or if you think that, even if he were, this automatically makes him an undesireable candidate unfit to lead your country) or that he was sworn in with his hand on the Koran, you just disqualified yourself. Go home, and invest some actual time and thought and care into this process. You can try to pass the test again in 2 years ... meanwhile you're on probation for Voting While Ignorant.

McCain on the Lower 9th

from Newsweek, what McCain said after his photo-op tour of New Orleans:

Asked earlier this week if he thought the Lower Ninth Ward should be rebuilt, McCain shrugged, considering the question for several seconds. "I really don't know," he finally said. "That's why I am going … We need to go back to have a conversation about what to do: rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is."

Sheeesh.

Being tHere Now

Andrew Sullivan on whether to photograph or not photograph an experience:

... why is remembering an event the key to experiencing it fully? Sometimes, being there, without mediation, without worrying about whether one day it will be forgotten, just being there is what matters. Life is now; and when we obsess about storing it for the future, we forget to experience it in the only way we truly can: in the present.

Amen! I love taking and looking at photos, mind you, but love even more simply having experiences that I am not attempting simultaneously to document. Either you have the experience, OR you document it through a "how will this look on paper?" lens.

When you die, you can't take your photo -- or anything you can see or think you "have" -- along with you. We have nothing. Including other people, even our own children. But when I watched my mother die it became clear, it is exactly our experience that does continue, on both sides of the veil.

Hillary's Pasty "Electability"

Richard Kim in The Nation:

... in the name of another personal quality--honesty--I'd like Hillary Clinton to make the following statement: "Though my opponent has run a terrific campaign, in primary after primary, I have proven that I am the more electable candidate. I am more electable because I am white. Barack Obama--Wow!--he's certainly inspired a lot of hope, but as voters in Indiana and North Carolina make up their minds, as the superdelegates make up their minds, they should remember that Barack Obama is black. They should also remember that a whole lot of white working-class Americans are racists. White racists are an important part of the Democratic Party, and time and time again, they've supported me because I am white. I am ready on day one to govern as your white American president."

If this sounds--excuse the pun--beyond the pale, it's because it is. Or at least, it should be. But the alleged racism of white working-class voters has become, through her campaign's own actions, the last remaining rationale for Clinton's candidacy.

Jeremiah Wrong

Bob Herbert in the New York Times:

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright went to Washington on Monday not to praise Barack Obama, but to bury him.

Smiling, cracking corny jokes, mugging it up for the big-time news media — this reverend is never going away. He’s found himself a national platform, and he’s loving it.

It’s a twofer. Feeling dissed by Senator Obama, Mr. Wright gets revenge on his former follower while bathed in a spotlight brighter than any he could ever have imagined. He’s living a narcissist’s dream. At long last, his 15 minutes have arrived.

continue reading the article ...

Obama Play Hoops

Can't wait to see that court installed on the White House Lawn!

And he's not the only one

In today's NY Times:

In interviews with several associates and aides, Mr. Obama was described as bored with the campaign against Mrs. Clinton and eager to move into the general election against Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Anyone out there not bored by the way Clinton has been forcing herself on us as being at the center of Obama's set of concerns?

Who let the dogs in?

To this day I have in my files a copy of the front page of the New York Times from 1984, with a photo of Presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale and his choice for Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro raising their clasped hands in an upside-down V. Of course their hopes for victory were doomed, as perhaps foreshadowed by the gesture.

Irrespective of their failure to foil Ronald Reagan's re-election, I will never forget, as a girl who came to political consciousness during the late '60s and early '70s, the feeling of joy and hope that literally swelled my chest to almost bursting with pride that a wif was on the ballot. I was so grateful (and still am) to the wifs a half-generation before me, who took put their marriages, careers, and futures on the line in their quest to bust up the lingering 1950s concepts of what it means to be female, and who had such a strong impact on my own road to self-liberation from all those restricting and oppressive preconceptions of wifhood.

One would expect, then, that I might be passionately backing Hillary Clinton in her bid for the Presidency. NOT! Hillary is chalk squeaking across the political board. Hillary is riding around on her husband's coattails and claims 35 years of experience whereas the extent of her service is merely 1.7 terms as a carpetbagging Senator. Hillary can't figure out who she really is and instead strings together an odd assortment of personnae. (The difference between Hillary and Bill, and one department in which she is far superior to her wer, is that generally speaking she has nearly perfect -- actually, scary -- control over which personna to use under what circumstances; whereas Bill's behavior seems fairly out of control lately.)

Apart from my distate for her personality, and some differences I have with the policies she is laying out ... my biggest fear if Hillary is nominated and elected is that she will need to maintain her cool and make rational decisions while sitting, most of the time, in the Oval Office -- the room where Bill used his cigar on Monica. I imagine that always present somewhere in her consciousness will be that lovely image and remembrance of all the pain and shame that ensued. On the other hand, if Hillary can compartmentalize the present from the past so thoroughly that the Memory of Monica is truly not present anywhere in her psyche while she fulfills her duties as President of the United States ... well, then, she scares me more than ever.

You are reading my baby

I dreamt a few nights ago that I had another baby and was lovingly nursing it. The good part of the dream was that my breasts were replenished to the glory of their youthful state. The excellent part of the dream was that the baby had no particular gender, not even a face, really, it was a blank slate and as I nurtured it my train of thought was all about all the things I want to do (now, in the rapidly-depleting-youth stage of my life).

So. Welcome to (one aspect of) my baby.

The actual prophecy?

I found this during a search for "who first spoke the Seventh Generation precept"? (No, the predominant meaning of Seventh Generation is not "a brand of overpriced toilet paper.") I have not uncovered the name of the Iroquois chief yet and will follow up. But meanwhile found this text of a fuller prophecy that I'd not seen before. One generally finds on Favorite Quote sites only the short bit about keeping the seventh generation in mind when making decisions today:

Mohawk Prophecy of the Seventh Generation.
According to the prophecy of the Seventh Generation, seven generations after contact with the Europeans the Onkwehonwe would see the day when the elm trees would die. The prophecy said that strange animals would be born deformed and without the proper limbs. Huge stone monsters would tear open the face of the earth. The rivers would burn. The air would burn the eyes of man. According to the prophecy of the Seventh Generation, the Onkwehonwe would see the time when the birds would fall from the sky. The fish would die in the water. And man would grow ashamed of the way that he had treated his Mother and Provider, the Earth. Finally, according to this prophecy, after seven generations of living in close contact with the Europeans, the Onkwehonwe would rise up and demand that their rights and stewardship over the Earth be respected and restored. According to the wisdom of this prophecy, men and women would one day turn to the Onkwehonwe for both guidance and direction. It is up to the present generation of youth of the Kanienkehaka to provide leadership and example to all who have failed. The children of the Kanienkehaka are the seventh generation.

I found this at http://www.spiritwheel.com/irqprophery.htm but the page is unsourced. Be forewarned: This page is hard on the eyes.

Dumb animals

That's what we like to call other species. Of course I believe in this case "dumb" is meant to mean "non-speaking." Man is also a dumb animal, in the "stupid" sense of the word; we are perhaps the only species that does not know the rule:

Don't shit where you eat.

The state of the planet, and the positioning of environmental issues on the party platforms during this Election of 2008, scare me. Will there even be a Seventh Generation?

Wow, that was quick

So earlier today I wrote up my "Wif, Wer ..." post and then later today I finally created a Facebook account. [Note: I'm feeling awfully old in there. Maybe I'll get younger again as I get more familiar with that new territory.] And I notice the news feed uses my preferred epicene singular possessive pronoun "their" if the account-holder's gender is left unspecified ...

... as in, "Ilyse Kazar mentioned Mickey Mouse in their note Mousing About."

It's Pretty Amazing how quickly my new blog has changed the world. =8-o

Students of English Ought To Reads These Article

Some self-violating rules of grammar.

The Bell Tolls for Jurisprudence

It can't be right. Sean Bell's killers, cops who unloaded 50 rounds at three unarmed young men, were all just declared innocent of all charges by Justice Arthur J. Cooperman of State Supreme Court in Queens. One cop had even stopped to reload his firearm, and resumed shooting after several moments of silence during which no shots were returned.

The New York Times posted a graphic of other notable cases where folks were shot or brutalized by members of the NYPD. If you haven't followed these cases over the years, have a look. If you remember these cases, this is becoming a holocaust that we should "Never Forget," so have a look anyway. What do you notice about these pictures?

Wif, Wer, They, Their

It is only recently that I learned the word "man" in Old English referred to all of "mankind," male and female alike. Nowadays folks use words like "humanity" (which has a deeper connotation) or just "people" (which has a more generic and, in my opinion, shallower connotation) in their attempts to find a neutral way to express "all the individuals on the planet, collectively."

I tend to prefer Old English-derived words over the Latinate cognates that entered our language later on. And I grow weary of executing (and reading!) clumsy syntactical backflips in an attempt to be PC and gender-neutral. So, I have chosen to go back to using "man" and "mankind." Therefore the word "postman," if encountered in an entry you read here, is to be interpreted as "a mail carrier" and not as "a male mail carrier."

The word for a male "man" used to be "wer" (think: werewolf). The word for a female "man" used to be "wif" (think: midwifery). I love these words. You may just find me using them, too.

One of the worst contortions of our language committed by writers conforming to modern PC language protocol is the use of two gender-specific singular pronouns when referring to one individual: "Each student must obtain a doctor's note for any class he or she may miss due to illness; otherwise two points will be deducted from his or her final grade." I cast the same vote as William Safire once did when he wrote a column suggesting that we just legitimize using "them" and "their" and "theirs" as our epicene singular pronouns. Since I am a strong believer in the bottom-up evolution of language and hardly expect some Academy Of Proper English to suddenly canonize this considered-to-be-vernacular use of the singular pronouns them and their, I will do my part in nudging the English language towards this much more graceful option.

I understand that it will look "uneducated" and "wrong" to many of you when you read a sentence here such as, "The valedictorian will deliver their commencement speech at 3:00." We have grown somewhat used to hearing this construction in everyday speech. I understand my reader may, just the same, feel uncomfortable seeing it done in writing. Maybe I can help you get over it.

--i.n.kazar

Postscript: I have already discovered while composing a draft for an upcoming entry, that in order to use wif and wer I run into some trouble when needing adjective forms. "Wifly" and "werly"? And plurals: "Wifs" and "wers"? I have not benefitted from any formal instruction in Old English. Maybe you can help me get over it. Corrections and further information are quite welcome, thanks.

risking a stinging bellyflop

jumping into the blogging pond!