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.