tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49692488304888685022024-02-19T21:18:15.083-08:00Decanting (Cerebral)Thoughts (carefully-weighed and otherwise) on a variety of topics, with periodic updates on minor life events. An on-line diary and musing center. Ideas about culture, the arts, nature, society and food. Veers dangerously close to self-absorption. An excuse to write.JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.comBlogger217125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-44642579134385409022011-11-14T10:10:00.001-08:002011-11-14T10:24:03.039-08:00Domain ChangesChange is good, you know. And over the past several months, I've spent more and more time on what was originally meant to stand in as a side-project to this blog, with the result being that the cerebral decantation action is now very much over on tumblr and not here on blogger at all.<br />
<br />
Partly this is due to the speed and ease of tumblr, where I've found editing and uploading to be a far easier task, and also due to my own obvious falling away from penning longer essays and turning towards dense shorter pieces and utilizing quotes and links for non-cultural criticism. I have every reason to suspect this switch in tactics has much to do with the fact that in a few weeks our son will turn one year old. In a way, I'm amazed that I've managed to actually increase my writing output since his birth and since I took over the reins as his full-time caregiver, but I also recognize that this came at a price. Word counts fell, even if quality rose.<br />
<br />
So with this in mind, I've taken the step of switching the titles of the blog and tumblr sites, to better reflect the fact that, if anything, it's the blog that has become the side-project or maybe even the afterthought. With less time to do anything, much less crank out essays, I have no regrets accepting the fact that I no longer wish to spend excess time pondering the often depressing and nearly always infuriating realm of cultural/political emerging stories. Thinking about them can be defeating enough. I'd rather spend a few minutes assembling quotations and offering a bit of context via related comments than take the whole morning to immerse myself in the philosophies of Herman Cain. Attempting to understand why art and cultural artifacts enrich my life seems a much healthier and beneficial way to keep the synapses firing as a stay-at-home father.<br />
<br />
So, watch this space, I guess, although don't watch it too hard. And know that over on tumblr, <a href="http://decanting-cerebral.tumblr.com/">Cerebral Decanting pushes on</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://decanting-cerebral.tumblr.com/">http://decanting-cerebral.tumblr.com/</a>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-27444895757183672262011-09-28T18:15:00.000-07:002011-09-28T18:17:33.772-07:00This And That: Blog & TumblrMost visitors here are aware that I split my time between this space and the more streamlined tumblr site, which has seen more action as of late, especially in the realm of music reviews, which have turned into a regular feature each Wednesday. Whether or not I'll ever get around to tweaking the title to reflect the fact that the listening notes are no longer "ultra-brief" remains to be seen.<br />
<br />
So, each Wednesday, six newly released recordings, two strongly recommended, two less strongly recommended, two to avoid.<br />
<br />
There's always a link for the tumblr on the upper right side of this blog. But old-school blog layouts being what they are, it can get missed. Direct link for the most recent post below for those interested.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://decanting-cerebral.tumblr.com/post/10771169030/listening-notes-ultra-brief-pt-14">http://decanting-cerebral.tumblr.com/post/10771169030/listening-notes-ultra-brief-pt-14</a><br />
<br />
<br />JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-31870480975769152972011-09-27T11:18:00.000-07:002011-09-27T13:55:24.425-07:00The Madness Of Crowds: Or, Which Side Are You On?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSRIUc6FUsqcWCSoowCl5oajOwyWKqLtlsFmfsYoiK4PZpMCfX0dUKUNxxinBc-44ADS9-svatOuozUul7ZL1lxvtBebYuOPx6KMFMSKE1ZD4VL6RfsfV09P-yE4xvzbxrGMrkm0vbSUo/s1600/intolerance1916dvdr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSRIUc6FUsqcWCSoowCl5oajOwyWKqLtlsFmfsYoiK4PZpMCfX0dUKUNxxinBc-44ADS9-svatOuozUul7ZL1lxvtBebYuOPx6KMFMSKE1ZD4VL6RfsfV09P-yE4xvzbxrGMrkm0vbSUo/s320/intolerance1916dvdr.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Though some may cry "relativism," morality remains an intensely personal concept, far from any universal agreed-upon standards. And the construction of a personal morality isn't something that happens overnight. Just like any thoughtful human being, my political and philosophical beliefs are precious to me precisely because they were hard-won, concepts I grappled with over the course of years and continue to tinker with to this day. Just as somebody who has never lived anywhere but the town or region they were born in will never understand the difficulties and pleasures of the peripatetic lifestyle, so, too, do those who have never wavered in their beliefs often fail to understand why the world might best be viewed through a decidedly gray prism rather than a fixed black and white lens.</span><br />
<br />
Gray shouldn't be considered a pejorative term - the central nervous system functions to a large extent thanks to gray matter. But certain strands of ideologues will steadfastly insist that to assign any issue or argument a gray hue is to toss reason aside and join the ranks of the savages. Interestingly enough, many of these same ideologues will tell you from time to time that they aren't interested in politics or philosophy, that they avoid the stuff precisely because they "know what they believe". The problem with such stances (there is more than one) is that it defies logic, claiming personal beliefs exist in some formaldehyde chamber using chemical compounds to neutralize the petty bickerings between national political parties - the notion that politics exist apart from our daily lives and only within the halls of government buildings and across radio bandwidths.<br />
<br />
I long ago stopped apologizing for my political and moral beliefs, not because I think everybody should think the way I do or that anybody who does not is a demon, but because removing those beliefs from daily conversation seemed intellectually feeble and dishonest. These beliefs do not get trumpeted to the world via bumper stickers or megaphones, and I don't saunter into working-class bars to pick fights with patrons over why FOX News is on the flatscreen overhead. But I've managed to hold many civil conversations on a variety of topics that ordinarily epitomize the "I don't want to talk about politics" mindset, conversations that unfold calmly precisely because neither party felt the need to apologize for their beliefs while also never once stooped to hyperbole or accusation. In most cases, there was also rarely if ever an attempt to "convert" the other, a rather hopeless cause for any single conversation, even if points and counter-arguments remained lodged in both brains for some time afterwards.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe only those of us who have undergone some type of gentle conversion process are able to easily transcend labels and mingle with opposing sides, if only because we can recall how self-sustaining our old beliefs and opinions really were. Political conversions also tend to unfold slowly - not baptisms in fire, but small incidents spilling over into one or two dark nights of the soul. No doubt, if my experiences with those taking issue with spouted opinions back in the formative years of high school had manifested itself through red-faced shouting matches, I might have proven less pliable. But the handful of incidents in which I clearly saw that my words or opinions had wounded, confounded, or disappointed others made their impact thanks to the calm manner in which the response unfolded - the look on a friend's face when I aped some line I'd heard about building a wall around Mexico, the gentle suggestion by an English teacher that I was probably a bit too smart to really agree with some stock phrase I tossed out, or the quiet hour-long discussion I had with an unfairly demonized religious instructor who took issue with a handful of thoughtless slurs I'd peppered a paper with simply to gain attention. In all three cases (there may have been more, but these three stick out), it was the absence of judgement and anger that forced me to confront why exactly I was saying the things I was saying, to question what reason, if any, such opinions were things I held dear. In nearly every case, the startling discovery was made that a large bulk of my political assumptions were at odds with my moral and philosophical beliefs - that I was lazily referencing what I heard at home without questioning whether they actually applied to my worldview. Things fell very rapidly into place once I squared my morality with my politics.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
This very long stroll down memory lane is really just an
excuse to step back and reflect upon how grateful I am to have undergone this
type of conversion experience, because there are times when I wonder if
specific causes I've allied myself with are hopeless, or wrong-headed, or
pointless. When I read reports of the ongoing Occupy Wall Street movement, for
example, I recoil at the documented evidence of police brutality, yet also
shake my head at the sheer empty-headed cluelessness permeating a crowd that
perfectly personifies the toothless utopian dreams of the politically
unsophisticated. From the literally meaningless sign<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">s hoisted into the air (personal favorite - "Even If
The World Were To End Tomorrow I'd Still Plant A Tree Today") to the
confusion manifested in a crowd bringing Apple products to a protest against
global capitalism, I understand the desire yet cannot get behind the political
naivete. In the eyes of some, this makes me a traitor, a term that perfectly
summarizes the conformist mindset of too many decent, driven people. But I've
also incurred the wrath of activists before by telling them to leave their damn
"Free Mumia" signs at home next time they come to protest an illegal
war. </span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.5pt;">All this
wavering on the edges and sidelines, then, can lead to concerns about the very
relativism I noted at the opening of this essay - the concern that seeing
multiple sides to any issue is really just a spineless or lazy attempt to shrug
off making hard decisions. But I easily recall the way it feels to bask in the
pleasure of a black-and-white belief, the way endorphins rush through the body
as one delivers a sermon choked with certainty much as if one had just devoured
an entire block of chocolate. This is something only rarely remarked upon by
those who wish to understand differences in moral reasoning -<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>it feels good to be sure about
something</i>. And the more confounding the issue - the more perilous taking a
stance may prove - the better it feels to cast doubt aside and embrace
certainty. And so when I see or hear or read reports of audience behavior at
recent political debates (behavior I'm highlighting below in an attempt to
remind myself and anybody interested that clear moral differences exist between
worldviews, in which the responses of the actual politicians being questioned
have been removed because the crowd speaks ever so much more loudly than they
could) - behavior that shocks and appalls many even if it warms the hearts of
others, I don't marvel so much at what seems to me their cold-heartedness or
absence of empathy or indeed possibly even their complete lack of humanity. I
marvel instead at how easy it is to express disturbing or even unthinkable
opinions as long as one has anonymity within a crowd who will back you up.
That, too, feels good. Nobody ever said politics or morality was easy.</span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">***********************************************************************************</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>1. </b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>September 7, 2011 </b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Brian Williams, moderator:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i>Governor Perry, a question about Texas. Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. Have you -</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Audience:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i>[applause, whistles]</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">***********************************************************************************</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>2.</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>September 12, 2011</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Wolf Blitzer, moderator:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i>You're a physician, Ron Paul. You know something about this subject. Let me ask you this hypothetical question. A healthy, 30 year old young man has a good job, makes a good living, but decides, You know what? I'm not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance, because I'm healthy; I don't need it. But you know, something terrible happens; all of a sudden, he needs it. Who's going to pay for it, if he goes into a coma, for example? Who pays for it?</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Ron Paul:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i>Well, in a society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he expects the government to take care of him.</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Wolf Blitzer:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i>Well, what do you want?</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Ron Paul:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>What he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself. My advice to him would have a major medical policy, but not before -</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Wolf Blitzer:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>But he doesn't have that. He doesn't have it and he needs intensive care for six months. Who pays?</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Ron Paul:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>That's what freedom is all about: taking your own risks.</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Audience:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>[cheers, applause]</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Ron Paul:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody -</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Audience:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>[applause]</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Wolf Blitzer:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>But Congressman, are you saying that society should let him die?</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Audience Member :</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>Yeah!</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Ron Paul:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><i><b>No -</b></i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Audience Member:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>Yeah!</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Additional Audience Member:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>Yes!</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Audience:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>[applause]</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">***************************************************************************************</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>3.</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Sept. 22, 2011</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Stephen Hill, soldier serving in Iraq:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>In 2010, when I was deployed to Iraq, I had to lie about who I was, because I'm a gay soldier, and I didn't want to lose my job. My question is, under one of your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b>Audience:</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><i>[several loud boos]</i></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-12443726146281061342011-09-22T10:49:00.000-07:002011-09-22T12:40:13.851-07:00The Dangers of Satisfaction: Thoughts On The Death Penalty, Troy Davis, And Guilty Versus Innocent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7gUoRfMjYlLEbrlPhhiH6Qw9ll3ANINT6_zLy0x6WHJSVXK_BsLaPAzwVUsMPji1hxN1ej_kqsDZEmodZYanYXfS7weJdj3RTFAHOu4CnkA8j77O_w-4OMIGyOo4s8YCJDuFcniNrVhs/s1600/Warhol_Electric_Chair_1962.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7gUoRfMjYlLEbrlPhhiH6Qw9ll3ANINT6_zLy0x6WHJSVXK_BsLaPAzwVUsMPji1hxN1ej_kqsDZEmodZYanYXfS7weJdj3RTFAHOu4CnkA8j77O_w-4OMIGyOo4s8YCJDuFcniNrVhs/s320/Warhol_Electric_Chair_1962.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even somebody with only a handful of facts about the case (ie,
me) suspects that a massive injustice went down in Georgia last night, when,
despite last-minute appeals to the Supreme Court, and despite a whole host of
irregularities during both the original investigation and the ensuing trial,
Troy Davis was executed by the state of Georgia for the killing of a Savannah
police officer twenty-two years prior. The case attracted extraordinary
attention both in this country and worldwide, leading to strong condemnations
and pleas for clemency. In the end, doubts were cast aside and the lethal
injection made its way down the intravenous tubing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Interestingly enough, on the same night Davis’ final appeal
was rejected, a man named Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed by the state of
Texas, also by lethal injection. There were no large groups of protesters
assembled to plea on Brewer’s behalf, other than a few scattered members of his
own family. Worldwide concern and condemnation did not rain down upon East
Texas as it did Central Georgia. And this is not surprising. Brewer was one of
several white supremacists who chained a black man named James Byrd to the back
of a pickup truck and dragged him to his death along a rural road soaked in
blood and body parts. Clearly guilty, and clearly motivated by race hatred in
his crime, the likes of Brewer do not often inspire death penalty opponents to
make their case.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But here is where
things get very complicated. I remain firmly opposed to the death penalty, a
stance I slowly arrived at and have continued to ponder. Cases like Troy Davis
are the ones that tend to rope in both the party faithful and less-committed
outsiders, those who remain unconvinced of the inherent barbarity of capital
punishment but are roused to action when it involves an innocent life. However,
this seems to me a somewhat dangerous exercise – or if that’s too strong a
word, a morally ambiguous band-aid for a larger problem. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I actually shy away from making the
you-may-be-killing-an-innocent-person argument when I speak against the death
penalty, partly because it doesn't get to the heart of what's wrong with it in
my eyes. Obviously, killing an innocent individual is a monstrous deed, and
most people would agree with that – indeed, anybody who would not should be
asked to leave the discussion (Such people, I am led to believe, do actually
exist). But if we construct our opposition to the death penalty along guilty
versus innocent arguments, a slippery debate ensues over varying levels and
degrees of outrage, which eventually leads to people making decisions on what
is and is not a crime worthy of capital punishment. We begin to weigh certain
factors and cast aside particular circumstances – we enter the perilous realm
of counting stab wounds to tally up an atrocity ballot.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me, the issue comes down to (among many other things)
the fact that execution flies in the face of all our other societal approaches
to law and punishment. The concept of revenge has effectively been removed
from the court of law as a justified course of action - we deal with
reparations, monetary payments, removal from active society, etc. Given the
possibility of life without parole and a guarantee that predators and monsters
would pose no threat to any other innocent soul, execution's only reason for
existence is to allow victim's families a sense of closure, which manifests
itself as <i>revenge</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In no other aspect of our contemporary society do we allow
revenge to play this kind of a state-sanctioned and legal role. It's understandable
that victim's families might want to see killers receive the ultimate sentence
- it's a basic and primal human urge. But courts and the law exist to pursue
punishment rather than leaving it up to the aggrieved. The fact that so many
death penalty proponents point to victim's families as the reason they support
the death penalty suggests they understand very well that the primary
motivation for capital punishment is revenge for impacted parties. It makes
sense - and yet it's a perversion of justice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The New York Times, among other news sources, has reported
that, “<span class="apple-style-span">One of the witnesses, a radio reporter from
WSB in Atlanta, said it appeared that the MacPhail family ‘seemed to get some
satisfaction’ from the execution”. Again, I don’t question or condemn the
family for these feelings or urges. To be sure, some extraordinary individuals
in other cases have urged for mercy on the grounds of forgiveness or a desire
to end the spiral of violence. But we recognize this as extraordinary because
we also suspect that such efforts come from a deeper well of morality or inner
strength than many of us probably possess. Left alone in a room with an
individual we suspect or are convinced murdered our child or spouse or sibling,
many of us, no doubt, would rush to tear them to literal pieces. This is why
the law does not place victim’s families alone in rooms with accused murderers.
I refuse to begrudge the family of Mark MacPhail for seeming to “get some
satisfaction” from Troy Davis’ death. But I begrudge the state of Georgia and
our own deeply flawed and unjust system for placing vengeful satisfaction above
every other corrective to those who would have or might have done harm. </span></div>
<br />JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-11312979214098907842011-09-01T12:16:00.000-07:002011-09-01T12:32:15.269-07:00Summer Raves (Wounded-Kite at :17): Three Months of Music Listening Notes<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGKQlGhqTtWZs3bZHEdCX4F_cWXySeF4B0U-qxhuHjwiFSnhtNam7R7O4WFYbtC18xmoOAB4FJjaR69SerbYik-BnJ41BLSq1ObqZOdgV-ePUPQvqQLErMxBguJNYSxXMWxqrCLDY5LQ/s1600/Nigeria-70-Sweet-Times.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLGKQlGhqTtWZs3bZHEdCX4F_cWXySeF4B0U-qxhuHjwiFSnhtNam7R7O4WFYbtC18xmoOAB4FJjaR69SerbYik-BnJ41BLSq1ObqZOdgV-ePUPQvqQLErMxBguJNYSxXMWxqrCLDY5LQ/s320/Nigeria-70-Sweet-Times.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not as much time spent at this space
as once upon a time, although blaming a certain now-9-month-old wouldn't
exactly be fair, because in many ways the new reality of fatherhood has allowed
me to jump back into writing and critical thinking in a way that hadn't seemed
quite as necessary before. Credit a new value placed on free time, and a desire
to exploit quiet moments (and sometimes moments are all they are). Also credit
the arrival in these United States of Spotify, an online music streaming
service that lets non-biz-connected music fans like me sample the best and
worst of the current crop without spending excessive amounts of cash or
downloading on the artist's dime. Finally, credit the near-constant
music/culture chatter I've been fortunate enough to observe and sometimes even
join in on from a variety of blogs, chat groups, and message boards. By the
time you enter your thirties, there's no way popular music can mean the same
thing it did when you were twenty. But part of that falling away comes from the
unavoidable fact that one's peers and equals are at that same time often
substituting music and culture for more mundane realities, which often leaves
one flailing about in an echo chamber of sorts, tossing out names of emerging
artists that more often than not fall on deaf, or at least semi-plugged, ears.
So having like-minded folks who are either at the prime of their
music-is-my-life stage or have refused to substitute the DJI for the NME to
bounce ideas off of has proven bracing.</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Final credit should go to slipping
outside the boundaries of the blog and into the faster-moving realm of the
tumblr, where for the past several months I've been compiling weekly
"listening notes" of new music I've either streamed, downloaded, or,
in some cases,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>even bought</i>.
At first simply an attempt to keep straight the dozens of new recordings and
artists I was sampling every week, I used the easily-updated tumblr to put up
"ultra-brief" notes that I jotted down while listening, later
assembling them into something resembling a compressed mini-essay. Usually when
I write about music, it comes after at least 5-6 listens, several of which involve
"deep listening," and multiple drafts of tightly-edited scrawlings.
These listening notes are something different - ideas and thoughts that are the
result of only one or two listens, helping to form an opinion on what to follow
up on and investigate further. This is potentially hazardous and usually rather
slip-shod, meaning I get things wrong and miss obvious details. Looking over
the notes compiled below, I note albums overpraised because I fell for
attention-getting opening salvos, or artists dismissed without a fair trial
(William Elliot Whitmore, for example, certainly deserves a reassessment).
But at the same time, I'm surprised at how often snap judgments held strong, or
at least helped contribute to a later critical judgment. I'm also surprised at
the sheer number of new(ish) music I've managed to track down, listen to, think
about, and splurt thoughts on over the past few months. If anything, the time
and effort I've put into this fairly modest little project only heightens my
respect for those doing so on a regular basis, on a larger canvas, and for a
wider audience (three inspirations for this project have been three like-minded
yet very different musical critics, all of whom are currently easily sampled on
electronic databases: the great Robert Christgau (<a href="http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/expert-witness-blog.aspx">Expert Witness blog</a>), the
indefatigable Tom Hull (<a href="http://tomhull.com/blog/">Tom Hull - On The Web</a>), and the (relative) newcomer Michael
Tatum (<a href="http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/guests/mt/">A Downloader's Diary</a>). All are worth your time).</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">The original "columns"
compiled herein can be found at my <a href="http://decanting-cerebral.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a>, with much prettier pictures and a
tighter layout. Each week, six recordings are highlighted, roughly broken into
Picks, Near Picks, and Bombs, which is pretty self-explanatory. For my purposes
here, I've rearranged things slightly to help separate higher-tiered items from
others, hence a selection of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>Top
Picks</u><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(stuff that is of
exceptionally high quality, A and A+ [or 8.5 and higher, for Pitchfork types],
with maybe a few A-'s that keep nudging their way upwards),<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>Upper Picks</u> (stuff that is
solid, rewarding, well-crafted, thought-provoking, and consistently really
really good, A-),<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>Near
Picks/Honorable Mentions/Good Stuff</u> (the tricky world of the B+,
albums that are very good in many ways, and even have transcendent moments,
either can't fully sustain their best efforts or suffer from poor quality
control, but still something I wouldn't hesitate to listen to again and
recommend), and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>Bombs</u> (stuff
that should largely be avoided, although encompassing a pretty vast realm
of good-hearted failures and execrable junk).</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the columns, I try and rank all 6
items in some vague approximation of descending quality, with the top choice
being my favored pick and the last choice being the worst of the bunch. In this
current collection, this is<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>not</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>the case. Items have been separated
into the order in which they were posted, so that all the Top Picks are
together without one being selected as the "Top" Top Pick, partly
because I'm lazy, partly because I just don't yet know which one is the
"best". There are also several longer reviews not included here that
I may post later, both expansions on these short reviews and albums not
reviewed here at all. I should also note that there are several high-ranking
releases I've especially enjoyed over the past few months that are not
represented here at all, either because I doubted my ability to write an
original review after soaking in the thoughts of others (some noted above) or
because I just didn't get around to it. Their absence doesn't mean anything
beyond that (right, tUnEyArDs?).</span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 13.5pt; font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">******************************************************</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ZCdogcHvUPA7sOGL5jyBlO8TapXL5j3dMulR_OA6moJhsY03u8fTLeFHKYfv8dfWy6axSKW2_RruvQjNeQ-ugCR1kIYtnrQ786zX2mhE7jKsT82cg6pJQ7s9ftgEhERlNJ4sEG49sFU/s1600/511SInToIcL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5ZCdogcHvUPA7sOGL5jyBlO8TapXL5j3dMulR_OA6moJhsY03u8fTLeFHKYfv8dfWy6axSKW2_RruvQjNeQ-ugCR1kIYtnrQ786zX2mhE7jKsT82cg6pJQ7s9ftgEhERlNJ4sEG49sFU/s320/511SInToIcL.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">TOP PICKS</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Lee
Perry / Bill Laswell, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Rise Again</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Two visionaries with uneven outputs – uneven largely because
they so often serve as their own producers. In this meeting of minds, Laswell
tempers Perry’s tendency to ramble, while Perry forces Laswell to lay off the
effects. Result – a true collaboration, with bass in your face. Plus, Perry
still manages to slip in one song about space aliens.</b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="font-weight: bold;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Paul Simon, <i>So Beautiful
Or So What</i></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="font-weight: bold;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal;"><b>The old
pro could teach the young’uns a thing or two about crafting solid lines of
verse – it’s not about clever rhymes or obscurity, but it does have something
to do with selecting small details, keeping the jokes subtle, and asking big
questions with small words. It also has something to do with placing
deceptively simple lyrics atop sympathetic arrangements and within charming
melodies. </b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="font-weight: bold;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="font-weight: bold;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="font-weight: bold;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nigeria 70: Sweet Times (Afro-Funk, Highlife & Juju
From 1970s Lagos)</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Typical solid compilation from the Strut label, in which
various performers both known (Ebenezer Obey, Dele Abiodun) and unknown (Soki
Ohale, Tunde Mabadu) spin out grooves less beholden to American funk and more
in line with traditional highlife and the emergence of juju. But there’s still
plenty of funk – Strut remains a groove label, after all.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<b>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Frank
Ocean, <i>nostalgia, ULTRA</i></span><br />
<br />
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Seek out the free download version before the official Def
Jam release mucks everything up, because muck it up they will. Every track by
this melodic, intelligent, funny r&b man is worth checking out, but it’s
the copyright law-defying theft of “Hotel California” that highlights his
audaciousness - Ocean doesn’t so much sample as just sing atop, cutting off and
sitting back to let the guitar solos play out to completion. Ballsy, no?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Walter
Gibbons, <i>Jungle Music: Mixed With Love</i></span></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
Gibbons revolutionized DJ culture in the late 1970s, when
his reel-to-reel edits and break samples in New York discos made the same kind
of impact DJ Kool Herc was perpetrating uptown. Two discs worth of edits,
mixes, and acetates, encompassing both standard disco thump and minimalist
avant-garde. And the dance underground was born.</div>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-weight: bold;">
<i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Sons
& Daughters, <i>Mirror Mirror</i></span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Comparing this Glasgow outfit to X isn’t lazy, it’s damn
near unavoidable. But while the boy-girl vocal tradeoffs do suggest John and
Exene, a warm Scottish burr coats this fourth full-length, which fully trades
folk atmospherics for echoed 80s indie raunch. Hands-on producer: one-half of
electronic outfit Optimo. Which means this rocks, but also grooves. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">DJ
Sigma, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">‘79</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Stafford, UK hip-hop enthusiast Sigma dug deep into his
vinyl collection to assemble this monster jam, which collects nearly 40 hip-hop
singles circa 1979, aka Year Zero. With minimal interference, he wisely lets
these voices from the past do the talking. Spoonie Gee, Funky Four Plus One,
Grandmaster Flash you know. Others you won’t. At 86 minutes, it’s not for
neophytes, but it’s also the great multi-label old school rap compilation we’ll
probably never get.</b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Shabazz
Palaces, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Black Up</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Seventeen years after Digable Planets’ second and final
album dropped, Ishmael Butler returns on a deeply abstract full-length building
off two EPs with good press. And what’s most remarkable here is how <i>hard</i>
the former Butterfly has gotten. Not hard gangsta – hard complex, dense,
layered, avant-garde. After fifteen plus years of underground hip-hop, it took
an elder to produce something truly challenging. I swear you can dance to it. </b></div>
<b>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Orange
Juice, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">…coals to newcastle</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
124 songs, nearly 7 hours of music, and if you think that’s
overkill you should get a load of the music. Featuring vocals from a swooning
fop no less original for echoing Bowie and anticipating Morrissey, the complete
(and long unavailable) works herein trace a weird journey from shambolic pop to
Talking Heads-style white funk. Embracing kitsch rather than ennui, they
kickstarted a Scottish revolution that enriches pop to this day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Terakaft,
<i>Aratan N Azawad</i></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As one piece of an expanding puzzle of nomadic Saharan
musicians wrestling the concept of “desert rock” away from the likes of Kyuss,
Terakaft exemplify what is remarkable about the bluesy guitar music emanating
from the Tuareg. Boasting melodies exotic enough to fascinate world music
virgins, they concurrently embrace hooks and western-derived guitar leads. It’s
enough to awaken nostalgia even in those who left classic rock behind years
ago. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">iceage,
</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">New Brigade</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not so much a blast of fresh air as a quick swig of battery
acid, four teenaged Danes brilliantly confuse Killing Joke with a pioneering
hardcore act, detonating eleven songs plus one interlude in under 25 minutes.
Noise and thrash dominate, but sing-song melodies have their place, too. A
servile press hails them “saviors” of punk, which they aren’t. But it’s punk
rock deferential to post-punk maturity, with energy only youth can provide.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">******************************************************</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgepqfg_PrGYt9rLiX2-Q4xd-9ZIjzL5QoIE2sDz00mJMooBvT4eUe8x5ND7sAnVPrLuohGoy1O-RHG4CltuDusUnPL2kusuBqy0xsW3j16v35rlKYti2nQOaq412eTxoB7cfXoT1a78TU/s1600/craig_taborn_avenging_angel.jpg.scaled1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgepqfg_PrGYt9rLiX2-Q4xd-9ZIjzL5QoIE2sDz00mJMooBvT4eUe8x5ND7sAnVPrLuohGoy1O-RHG4CltuDusUnPL2kusuBqy0xsW3j16v35rlKYti2nQOaq412eTxoB7cfXoT1a78TU/s320/craig_taborn_avenging_angel.jpg.scaled1000.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">UPPER PICKS</span></div>
</div>
</b><b>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mountain
Goats, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">All Eternals Deck</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whatever John Darnielle might otherwise suggest, the concept
here isn’t Tarot cards, but ghosts – literal and metaphorical. How much this
concept intrigues you may depend on your tolerance for vague imagery rather
than sharp detail, plus your tolerance for Darnielle’s previous output. But
press in, and the details do emerge. Jokes, too. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Moby</span>, <i>Destroyed</i></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal;">His fame
now faded, and no longer pretending any relationship with “dance,” our hero
adds his voice to a few songs here, leaves the heavy lifting to various female
friends, and scratches his 70s electronic itch. Still has an ear for hooks –
and a weakness for grandeur. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Battles</span>, <i>Gloss Drop</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Boy, could these guys teach their fellow NYC noise freaks
Gang Gang Dance a thing or two about good art rock. For one thing, it involves
distortion. And pummeling grooves. Preferably all at once. [see below]</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jill
Scott, <i>The Light Of The Sun<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Undeniably drags a bit near the middle, with the 9-minute
“Le BOOM Vent Suite” in particular making me fidget. But the rest of this
thoughtful jazz-friendly soul makes enough welcome nods to the high times of
early 2000s Soulquarians to erase bad memories of the less-inspired moments.
And the lady can sing some.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Craig
Taborn, <i>Avenging Angel<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I prefer Taborn when he’s plugged in – his electric keyboard
exploits with Tim Berne and various Thirsty Ear sessions slam like few of his
contemporaries. But this ECM solo piano date isn’t just an attempt to shore up
his traditional bona fides. Like Anthony Braxton doing whole albums of
chestnuts, it’s a chance to explore new sonic realms the so-called
traditionalists claim as their own. Plus, an attempt to shore up traditional
bona-fides.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
</b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Cults,
<i>Cults</i></span></b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b></b></div>
</b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</b></span></b><br />
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b></b></span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Dismissing this charming pop outfit as derivative is just
dumb – of course they’re derivative. But their affectionate pastiche of Brill
Building/ Phil Spector archetypes isn’t the result of a lack of ideas. Maybe
they just got tired of hearing other indie acts mining from the same shallow
well of ideas and decided to take a chance.</b></span></b></div>
</div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>
</b></span></b><b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><b>
<br />
<br />
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Horse
Meat Disco III</span></i></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>
</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>No lapse in quality in this third installment from the
long-running London club of the same name – in fact, they up the ante by
tossing in a second disc of premier “sleaze disco” to compliment the enjoyable
mixture of hits and rarities that make up disc 1. No turntable shenanigans, no
pointless extended mixes, just hedonism on the turntable. </b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Washed
Out, <i>Within And Without<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Accusations of Ernest Greene’s synthesizer project “going
mainstream” needn’t worry normal folks like us – near as I can tell, he’s just
streamlined his melodies a bit and toned down the grime from earlier EPs. Could
even be a guitar album. Synth-pop in which the pop is as important as the
synths? How radical. Or is that centrist?</b></div>
<b>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Fucked
Up, <i>David Comes To Life<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those lamenting mp3 dominance will rejoice in this four-act
“punk opera,” complete with booklet and incomprehensible plot. With a single
acoustic interlude disrupting the onward rush of walled guitars, this is
uncompromising, even grand. If an entire album’s worth of Damian Abraham’s
screamo vocals leave me wanting more female interjections, they do eventually
seem a natural affectation rather than unnecessary male aggression.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">******************************************************</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFWEbBPuyyy9UZBdXIVosg9tF65U7SJN-HMxEVtzxv6N-JO_gIVCA5JAJ8UkaUy57i5PExVqrVKOrfpTpN5W1m5ISjFoXqksj2ARE_qE20m9Puu2v2LXpy-9BUYh4JfTTdqPQ7kVIFEok/s1600/TheWeeknd_invert_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFWEbBPuyyy9UZBdXIVosg9tF65U7SJN-HMxEVtzxv6N-JO_gIVCA5JAJ8UkaUy57i5PExVqrVKOrfpTpN5W1m5ISjFoXqksj2ARE_qE20m9Puu2v2LXpy-9BUYh4JfTTdqPQ7kVIFEok/s320/TheWeeknd_invert_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">NEAR PICKS / HONORABLE MENTIONS / GOOD STUFF</span></div>
</div>
</b><b>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: x-large;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Gil
Scott-Heron / Jamie xx, <i>We’re New Here<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: x-large;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Remix of last year’s <i>I’m New Here</i>, which it improves
upon simply by casting a wider sonic net. Also gives us “I’ll Take Care Of
You,” which does honor to Gil’s memory while making me ansty for that new xx
album. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: x-large;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: x-large;">
<br /></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; font-size: x-large;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Elbow,
<i>Build A Rocket, Boys!</i></span></div>
</div>
</b></span></b><b>
</b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</b></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b></b></span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Too close to Coldplay for comfort. But Guy Garvey’s
Manchester childhood is remembered with a delicacy and skill that has so far
escaped Chris Martin. And the children’s choir is at least deployed sparingly. </b></span></b></div>
</div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>
</b></span></b><b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><b>
<br />
<br />
<br />
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Wild
Beasts, <i>Smother</i></span></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Speaking of smothering, successfully fight off the urge to
choke lead crooner Hayden Thorpe with a pillow, and you just might find a
quietly pulsing collection of synth pop nuggets and some of the most
preposterous sex lyrics to grace an album this year. “O Ophelia / I feel yer,”
goes one, and it gets better from there.</b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Colin
Vallon Trio, <i>Rruga</i></span></b></div>
<b>
</b><b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<b>Fairly typical ECM piano jazz – lyrical, never swings too
hard, heavy on the atmospherics. More Richie Beirach than Keith Jarrett, for
good or ill. And pretty literal fellas, too – “Eyafjallajokul,” named after the
infamous Icelandic volcano, rattles and clinks just like tectonic plates
converging. I was actually hoping for something a little more whimsical. </b></div>
<b>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Lady
Gaga, <i>Born This Way</i></span><br />
<br />
</b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
In the end, too wearying for all but marathon runners, with
one anthem too many and nary a rest stop in sight. Also, her supposedly
forward-looking politics may date sooner than she or her enthusiasts suspect.
But pretty smart and pretty funny for the biggest superstar currently
inhabiting planet earth.</div>
</div>
</b></span></b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</b><b>
<br />
<br />
<br />
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hauschka,
<i>Salon Des Amateurs</i></span></div>
</div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</b><b>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Far more varied than one might suspect from the ninth
full-length release of an artist dedicated to the prepared piano. With kit
drummers from the rock realm lending a hand, this takes off some from mere
minimalism. But it remains a bit earthbound.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">J-Rocc,
<i>Some Cold Rock Stuff<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Orange County turntablist, proud Beat Junkies member since
’92, finally drops a proper solo record. Only, this isn’t a mix tape or even
much of a DJ extravaganza – more of a hazy, tripped-out stringing together of
grooves and noize. Part thematic statement, part simple desire to put something
on wax. Imperfect, but worth your attention.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
Weeknd, <i>House Of Balloons<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mystery soulman from Ontario, riding a download-only buzz
into national attention thanks to an excellently conjured dark mood and
pleasantly surprising samples. But a vocal approach permanently lodged in the
falsetto range complete with autotune eventually runs out of ideas, and the
whole sex-as-manifestation-of-inner-pain thing gives off the whiff of squiggle
porn streaming alongside a badly misinterpreted Anais Nin tract. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Brand New Wayo: Funk, Fast Times and Nigerian Boogie Badness
1979-1983</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These 15 examples of “Nigerian Boogie” go some way towards
suggesting the limits of vault digging and also help showcase the degree to
which American disco and r&b was copied by admiring African musicians – not always compellingly copied. Still,
beat fans will find much to enjoy, and the accompanying book-not-a-booklet is
mighty impressive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
. <span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Chalk
Circle, <i>Reflection<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Act of archaeology uncovers unjustly forgotten pioneering
female D.C. act, circa 1983, with fairly typical jerky rhythms. Think Gang Of
Four or Delta 5, only nowhere near as accomplished. Their amateurishness and
muddied sound help further dilute the message, but this is far more compelling
than anything offered by many of their D.C. hardcore contemporaries.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Dale
Earnhardt Jr. Jr., <i>It’s A Corporate World<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s an odd mocking of blue-collar life going down here,
from the “look at this fucking hipster” band name to stray references to mobile
homes. Pretty milquetoast for Detroit boys, too. Yet they handle themselves
ably with a cover of Gil Scott-Heron’s “We Almost Lost Detroit,” and while
Gil’s lyrics can’t help but highlight their own deficiencies, this band
definitely has better tunes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Hotel
St. George, <i>Bloodlust<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
San Diego lads jettison the clean snap of earlier
productions for a murkier vibe that provides the preferred backdrop for Matt
Binder’s Peter Murphy-inspired vocals. “That’s why I drink every night,” he
declaims over heavily-processed guitar echoes, and it’s nice to know he’s got a
reason.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Soft
Metals, <i>Soft Metals<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
An innocent bystander asked if this was Depeche Mode, which
is either high praise or a diagnosis. A few too many lengthy instrumental
workouts do eventually take their toll, but this Portland, OR-based romantic
duo embrace warmth and (surprise surprise) human relationships far more than
their many chillwave contemporaries. Plus, “Voices” is a standout single –
another distinguishing characteristic.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Augustus
Pablo, <i>Message Music: Augustus Pablo’s Digital Productions, 1986-1994<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pretty corny, even for Pablo, which is saying something. The
high-end compression of these “digital productions” are less woodsy and
primordial than classic dub, and the technology has dated some (although less
than you’d suppose). But there’s something noble in the way Pablo
single-mindedly pursued his beloved dub in the face of dancehall onslaught.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Jay-Z
/ Kanye West, <i>Watch The Throne</i></span></div>
</div>
</b></span></b><b>
<br />
<br />
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
Just as the whole affair begins resembling a Kanye project
with Jay-Z on backup, Yeezy steps aside and allows Mr. Carter room for air. And
before the production values and micromarketing become oppressive, our two
kings demonstrate they’re capable of embracing a sloppier, half-assed
aesthetic. That is, this is frequently pompous, self-indulgent, and redolent of
the focus group. But how about that Phil Manzanera sample, the shout-outs to
civil rights veterans, treating Otis Redding like the royalty he is?</div>
</div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Motor
City Drum Ensemble, <i>DJ-Kicks<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Opens with Sun Ra, closes with James Mason (the Roy Ayers
guitarist), and in between come Tony Allen, Aphex Twin, Walter Gibbons, Geraldo
Pino, and Loose Joints. Which should suggest how far afield of traditional
house music this Stuttgart house producer likes to roam. Yet here’s the thing –
it all flows perfectly together. Admittedly, turning Tony Allen into house
music could be seen as a criticism. But not in this case.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Kendrick
Lamar, <i>Section.80<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can’t get behind everything this Compton rapper does –
schmaltzy ballad here, preachy interludes there, folks “actin’ like hoes”. But
elsewhere on this loosely conceptual album, a young man confident enough to use
his real name wonders aloud if hitting on a stewardess would flag him as a
terrorist and calls out Ronald Reagan’s inner-city legacy before going out
spitting political over a flurry of jazz beats. The dude’s 23 years old. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Bon
Iver, <i>Bon Iver<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The either/or love/hate directed at this mild-mannered
folkie has never made much sense, and whatever formal limitations are embodied
in his garbled verse and pretty melodies certainly aren’t offensive. Here he
wards off the sophomore slump by embracing busied arrangements, sometimes
bombastically so. Intentions re: the schlocky finale are less obvious – perhaps
a litmus test on the perimeters of cool, or just basking in non-ironic
banality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Stephen
Malkmus And The Jicks, <i>Mirror Traffic<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Forty with a kid/Living on the grid,” the former SM notes,
and a decade out from his Pavement days, it’s becoming clear he’ll forever
paint on smaller canvases. Malkmus appears incapable of releasing a lousy
record. But in the 90s, a line like “I know what the senator wants/What the
senator wants is a blowjob,” would’ve been dropped without preamble amid other
non sequiturs. Here it becomes the chorus. A sign of progress, or a retreat to
the bland middle? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Cut
Off Your Hands, <i>Hollow<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not an original bone in their dear little frames, unless
choosing The Trashcan Sinatras as your inspiration counts, which it probably
should. Credit or blame the remoteness of New Zealand for the quaint nature of
this guitar-pop record - charming lads echoing any number of quietly wonderful
Kiwi bands mining similar inoffensive veins. Coming by their Anglo-Saxon
worship naturally, they shimmer, strum, even write some tunes. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">******************************************************</span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZE23_wSgx4qrpVyydE3rmf-a9C_4U2QD_aO0WBNgy5m7dybHo19cV_w35sfIC0GDBWCzwRizuqcGCBJoE-53VnPfCfSyfTppK9vwxArRR8ADZj1xTerUUa_aGJd_20z4ewB9eN9bnzyI/s1600/New-Boyz-Too-Cool-to-Care-album-cover.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZE23_wSgx4qrpVyydE3rmf-a9C_4U2QD_aO0WBNgy5m7dybHo19cV_w35sfIC0GDBWCzwRizuqcGCBJoE-53VnPfCfSyfTppK9vwxArRR8ADZj1xTerUUa_aGJd_20z4ewB9eN9bnzyI/s320/New-Boyz-Too-Cool-to-Care-album-cover.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">BOMBS</span></div>
</div>
</b><b>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: x-large;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">New
Boyz, <i>Too Cool To Care<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: x-large;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The sort of autotune vapidity one would expect from a duo
forming around a dance craze involving tight pants. Includes dick jokes. So how
come the front cover doesn’t show off their crotch bulges? Might they be pulling
one over on us?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: x-large;">
<br /></div>
</b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; font-size: x-large;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b></b></span></b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; font-size: x-large;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></b></span></b></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>
</b></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Chad
VanGaalen, <i>Diaper Island</i></span></div>
</b></span></b><b>
<br />
<br />
</b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
Indie singer-songster attempts to enter the mind of Woman on
this modest offering’s final track. “Shave My Pussy,” it’s called, and, yes,
it’s as clumsy as you suspect. If VanGaalen really feels the need to share his
personal hobbies with the outside world, he might look into home brewing. </div>
</div>
</b></span></b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</b><b>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Dengue
Fever, <i>Cannibal Courtship</i></span></b></span></b><b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When this Cambodian singer and her non-Cambodian LA backup
band were delivering most of their material in Khmer, they at least had a
shtick to help them stick out. Having now switched to mostly English lyrics,
their lack of imagination has been thrown into relief. Still fun at times, but
anybody lucky enough to regularly sample LA’s fleet of pan-cultural food trucks
won’t be too blown away by the melding of cultures herein. </b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
Antlers, <i>Burst Apart<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I’ll agree that sincerity may be preferable to irony, but
not if it’s going to be this defiantly down in the dumps. And while losing a
pet may indeed be a personal tragedy, when an arty indie chamber-pop outfit
chooses this as the subject matter for their grand and hyperbolic finale,
they’d better expect a few chuckles.</b></div>
<b>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
<div>
<b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
<b>
</b></div>
<div>
<b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
<b>
</b></div>
<br /></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; font-size: x-large;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Gang
Gang Dance<i style="font-style: italic;">, Eye Contact</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><i style="font-style: italic;"><br /></i></span></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
Boy, could these guys learn a thing or two about good art rock from their fellow NYC noise freaks Battles. For one thing, it involves distortion. And pummeling grooves. Preferably all at once. [see above]</div>
</div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important; font-size: 16pt;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Owl
City<i style="font-style: italic;">, All Things Bright And Beautiful</i></span></div>
</div>
</b></span></b><b>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic;">
<br /></div>
</b><b>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
At first you think he’s got to be kidding – that this fluffy
take on The Postal Service’s lighter moments must be some kind of decadent
joke. Then you notice how singer Adam Young chirpily enunciates lines like “</div>
</div>
</b></span></b><b></b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span class="apple-style-span">I stood under the waterfall kiwi-pineapple parasol,” and
figure maybe he’s just working through some personal issues. The worst thing to
come out of Minnesota since Michele Bachmann.</span></div>
</div>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">James
Blake, <i>James Blake<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Not dubstep, silly, <i>post</i>-dubstep. With all the
fussiness and pointless fetishizing sub-sub-genres specialize in. Plus, a lousy
lyricist in love with his quite modest vocal abilities. And not only can’t you
dance to it, there’s not much to even keep time to. </b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Miracle
Fortress, <i>Was I The Wave?</i></span></b></div>
<b>
</b><b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
Glorified EP from indie outfit now trending electronic. Out
of ten tracks, I count four songs, three of them memorable, all in sway to an
imagined 1980s soundtrack. Some generous soul at Allmusic.com adduced this a
“great summer afternoon album” for “day-driving with friends”. What, with these
gas prices? </div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt; font-style: italic;">
<br /></div>
<br />
</b><b>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Joaquin
“Joe” Claussel, <i>Hammock House: Africa Caribe</i></span></div>
</div>
</b></span></b><b>
<br />
</b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
Having always found Fania Records and their salsa lineup a
bit slick for my grungy tastes, I held out hope this mix by DJ Claussel might
mess things up a bit. Instead, it still comes off pretty slick, with a useless
bonus disc gummed up by several minutes of pompous piano flourishes that had
even my classical-leaning wife begging me to shut it off.</div>
</div>
</b></span></b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</b><b>
<br />
<br />
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</b></div>
<div>
<b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<b>Mountains,
<i style="font-size: 16pt;">Air Museum</i></b></div>
</div>
<b>
</b><b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<b>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
Think <i>Music For Aquariums</i> – this ambient/post-rock
duo doesn’t so much drone as shimmer, and if you’ve heard a single Klaus
Schultz track, you’ve heard it done better forty years ago. Easy on the ears
and zero ideas – how very mainstream. </div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">William
Elliott Whitmore, <i>Field Songs<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The guy’s got some good politics. Plus, he boasts a
prematurely wizened voice, accompanied by banjo – just like Bascom Lamar
Lunsford! Also, he utilizes clawhammer banjo technique rather than typical
post-Earl Scruggs bluegrass technique – just like Bascom Lamar Lunsford! But
Lunsford wasn’t being deliberately archaic – he was playing what he knew. Now
let’s talk about some of the other ways William Elliott Whitmore differs from
Bascom Lamar Lunsford.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Unknown
Mortal Orchestra, <i>Unknown Mortal Orchestra<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s been a psychedelic revival of sorts trickling out of
New Zealand since at least the late 1970s, and near as I can tell, the only
thing Ruban Nielson brings to the party is a weakness for stoopid spelling
(“Ffunny Ffriends,” let me try to control myself), stunningly long fade-outs, and
some satisfyingly lo-fi yet funky drums. The drums I can get behind.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Rahsaan
Patterson, <i>Bleuphoria<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Decent guy, solid pipes, proper respect for his elders,
creates something new out of “I Only Have Eyes For You”. But far too often,
this dull neo-soul exercise merely plods, melodically spare and largely bereft
of hooks. The big gospel moment arrives via farting synth bass and the Andrae
Crouch singers. He “sits all day” on the “Mountain Top,” although he doesn’t so
much take you there as drag you along.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">MellowHype,
<i>BLACKENEDWHITE<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Previously a free mixtape, now Fat Possum-sanctioned, this
Odd Future crew’s re-release isn’t so much complex as just busy, with keyboards
dominating, sometimes annoyingly so. Frank Ocean’s cameo briefly lifts
proceedings. But this crew has a rep for crazy lyrics? “There’s so many hoes/In
the strip club/Taking off they clothes/In the strip club” is quite the
observation. And “Fuck The Police”? Come up with that yourself, Hodgy Beats?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Theophilus
London, <i>Timez Are Weird These Days<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Trinidad-born, Brooklyn-raised, yet what he knows about
r&b comes straight outta business school, with networking skillz
outstripping musical gifts, no matter the overtures made towards indie rock and
electro. Try as he might, he can’t quite deliver the party anthem the marketing
exec in him desires, although chiding a female exhibitionist would seem to be
one attempt. Remember MC Hammer? He spent whole songs reminding you what his
name was, too.<span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Gucci
Mane, <i>Ferrari Boyz<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t wanna elbow Gucci Mane’s muse aside, but rhyming
“faggot” with “braggin’” (twice!) just doesn’t scan right. Might I suggest
“braggart”? Better yet, why not drop the entire verse? Elsewhere on this
plodding “street release,” somebody attempts the forced rhyme “private” /
“privates,” which suggests a bit of confusion regarding rules of verse,
although it’s quite clear which of the two we can suck.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;">Brilliant
Colors, <i>Again And Again<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maybe this kind of deliberately amateurish twaddle was
endearing back in the early days of C86 and twee-pop. But I suspect if The
Wedding Present or The Shop Assistants had highlighted vocals this desultory,
lifeless, and pitch-challenged, there wouldn’t have been a movement worth
referencing. In literature, this kind of thing is called a genre exercise,
although even there you need to put all the commas in the right place. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
</b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">James
Pants, <i>James Pants</i></span></b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b></b></div>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</b><b>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
<div style="display: inline !important;">
Archaic synths and muffled vocals of no consequence,
assembled by a fella hailing from “an American backwater called Spokane,” last
seen hawking a concept album “made while reading mystical books”. Like his many
chillwave contemporaries, he suspects Atarai graphics represent the height of
Western art. Unlike them, he claims to represent a movement he’s dubbed
“freshbeat”. There certainly are a few beats.</div>
</div>
</b></span></b><b>
</b><b><div class="MsoNormal" style="display: inline !important;">
</div>
</b><br />
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
<b></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
War On Drugs, <i>Slave Ambient<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Undeniably impressive, the way this Philly crew manages to
blend 70s song structure with paisley-flecked psychedelic contours. But what to
make of an outfit once featuring rising star Kurt Vile who took four years off,
parted ways with their acolyte, and now return sounding<i> almost exactly like
Kurt Vile</i>? Key difference – Vile writes sharper tunes. And their
paisley-flecked psychedelic contours could be a whole lot woollier.</b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The
Cave Singers, <i>No Witch <o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<b>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In which the bassist for Pretty Girls Make Graves assembles
fellow Seattleites to explore the possibilities of an acoustic-driven format
one might kindly dub Campfire Rock. An improvement on two previous efforts,
with nods toward electricity welcome indeed. But snot-punk vocals atop bongos
‘n drone has aesthetic limitations. Art defining white male culture as the
tribal calls of bearded forest dwellers has even less to teach us. </div>
</b></div>
</div>
JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-57490474255868347422011-08-04T08:56:00.001-07:002011-08-04T15:52:41.046-07:00From The Mouths Of Banksters: Why The Busts Will Keep Coming<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwjNnAJuCCQ6Y_4rR6PFv4nSoujQpy6cPRBot3GfietjPPpHKfbm0CWlsyEtTkq93uKTqqmUKZ_uhtViM-LNrWTbswuTvJUx9pamXS5qtLjD6APRyjixfX0KFb7X61Qjppbql6prlBeE/s1600/summerzzzzz.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwjNnAJuCCQ6Y_4rR6PFv4nSoujQpy6cPRBot3GfietjPPpHKfbm0CWlsyEtTkq93uKTqqmUKZ_uhtViM-LNrWTbswuTvJUx9pamXS5qtLjD6APRyjixfX0KFb7X61Qjppbql6prlBeE/s400/summerzzzzz.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637031406034335442" /></a><br /><div>Nothing like the double whammy of re-watching Charles Ferguson's <i>Inside Job</i> (2010 documentary on our most recent financial crisis) and reading Thomas Frank's<i> </i>essay "The Age Of Enron" (<i>Harper's</i>, August 2011) to get the blood boiling. Frank in particular is at pains to suggest - or, to be fair, reveal - how our elected leaders, financial rulers, and complicit press continue to hawk a flawed narrative that goes something along the lines of "We didn't see this coming and we will do better next time". Not merely naive or disingenuous, this argument is a carefully calculated falsehood meant to dupe, obfuscate, and spread the pain. Frank suggests that the stunning collapse of Enron ten years ago - a collapse caused not by uncontrollable outside forces but by a culture of greed and dishonesty supported both within and outside the company - merely set in motion a new reality of continual boom-bust cycles, with spectacular meltdowns sweeping up ever-larger swaths of people in their wake, yet with the central figures fighting back each time against any efforts at regulation or criminal prosecution. </div><div><br /></div><div>By casting as its enemy the phantom ghoul of regulated markets, Enron and family have successfully managed to sway the national dialogue in their favor, even if the companies themselves have long since fallen from grace. Because while certain investors, shareholders, and CEOs may indeed stand to lose a bit of gold and silver from their pockets in the face of industry-wide regulation, the damage wreaked on the nation as a result of defiant deregulatory practices are easily measured. Consider the man-made "electricity crisis" visited upon California residents in 2000-2001, a series of Enron-sanctioned criminal acts that was only made possible following the deregulatory legislation put forth by then-governor Pete Wilson. Or consider the passing of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, federal legislation decreeing over-the-counter derivatives transactions (OTC) off-limits to regulation, neither as "futures" nor as "securities" - in essence, removing derivatives and credit default swaps from federal security oversight and the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936. </div><div><br /></div><div>What is stunning about these dual pieces of harmful legislation is not simply that the former led to a local energy crisis and resulted in the meltdown of one of the largest companies in the nation, or that the latter directly led to the world economic crisis of 2008. No, what's <i>truly</i> stunning, as Frank highlights, is that Enron itself was used as a positive example by the Federal Reserve as a success story proving the safety of the derivatives market and the dangers of regulation. To wit, the about-to-collapse company was cited by the Fed as "an example of a prominent player in the derivatives market that was successfully 'regulated' by counterparty discipline, without needing bank-like government oversight".</div><div><br /></div><div>This is not simply a matter of positive spin or industry-think. This is not merely an example of experts "getting it wrong," "miscalculating," or "failing to foresee the future". This is, instead, indicative of a wider culture hostile to regulation and willing to cheat and lie in order to achieve market dominance. With each new financial crisis, the defenders of the threatened deregulatory virgin assume battle gear, deny everything, and demand greater freedom to commit their crimes of greed. With full severance pay and bonuses, of course.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since pulsing forehead veins and uncontrolled foaming at the mouth are as unpleasant to witnesses as they are to the afflicted, I'll stop there. Allowing these banksters and career criminals to bury themselves with their own words won't change much, but there's something a little cathartic about seeing so much idiocy, self-delusion, and pomposity put down for posterity in one place. Behold the wisdom of our ruling class.</div><div><br /></div><div>***************************************************************************** </div><div><br /></div><div><b>1</b></div><div><br /></div><div>"I believe in God and I believe in free markets."</div><div><br /></div><div>- Ken Lay, Enron CEO, 2001</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>2</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>"I'm doing God's work. We're very important. We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It's a virtuous cycle".</div><div><br /></div><div>- Lloyd Blankfein, CEO, Goldman Sachs, whose company was saved by the U.S. Government in 2008, after which Goldman Sachs reported $3 billion in third quarter earnings and readied $16 billion in year-end bonuses (<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lloyd-blankfein-says-he-is-doing-gods-work-2009-11">BusinessInsider.com</a>, Nov. 9, 2009)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>3</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; "><p class="MsoNormal">"Our global franchise and brand have never been stronger, and our record results for the year reflect the continued diversified growth of our businesses."<span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p></o:p></span></p> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; ">-Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld, ten months prior to Lehman Brothers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the largest default in history. Under Fuld's leadership, Lehman continued to underwrite mortgage-backed securities in the face of the growing housing crisis,<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia; color:black"> </span></span>accumulating an $85 billion portfolio, almost four times the $22.5 billion of shareholder equity Lehman possessed as a buffer against losses.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; "></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; "> (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; "><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&refer=home&sid=aiETiKXNbDVE">Bloomberg</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; ">, Sept. 15, 2008)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; "><p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> </p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; "><b><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; "><b><br /></b></span></div>4</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; "><p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> </p></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span style="color:black"><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-family:Georgia;color:black">"You don’t understand. Dysfunction is good on Wall Street."</span><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-bidi-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Georgia;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">- Stanley O'Neal, CEO, Merrill Lynch. O'Neal stated in July 2007 that</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#222222;mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">"[The subprime problem is] reasonably well contained. There have been no clear signs it's spilling over into other subsets of the bond market, the fixed-income market, and the credit market." Within four months of this statement, Merrill Lynch had lost over $50 billion on mortgage-backed securities and subprime loans, while O'Neal had left the company.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Georgia;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">O'Neal "squeezed in 20 rounds of golf, including three rounds on three different courses in a single day,</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:Georgia;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">as his company was racking up the largest quarterly loss in its 93-year history.....In October, O'Neal announced his "retirement," walking away with a compensation package valued at $161.5 million...."</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; ">[<a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/11/financial-crisis-excerpt-201011?currentPage=2">Vanity Fair</a>, <i>The Blundering Herd</i>]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> </span></p></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><b>5</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">"</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; color: black; " >In the last 15 years, I have never walked into a room or been at a dinner party where I did not feel that when people looked at me they thought I was O.K., successful, agile. That might have changed. I feel like people now look at me with a question mark. I’m angry. When you walk around with the reputation for being the most rigorous risk analyzer, assessor, controller and that is trashed, well, you have got to feel bad. This is personal</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">."</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">- James Cayne, former CEO of Bear Stearns, ruminating on the collapse of Bears Stearns' hedge funds, signalling the start of the global financial crisis. In March 2008, with his company on the brink of bankruptcy, Cayne was involved in a bridge tournament in Detroit. Having once informed an investment-firm chief acquaintance that her 11-year-old son had "a rotten handshake, that kid's going nowhere in life," Cayne later sold his entire stake in the failing company for $61 million dollars. [NYTimes, "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/29/business/29bear.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin">Salvaging A Prudent Name</a>"] </span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><b>6</b></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">"We're on the side of the angels."</span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">- Jeff Skilling, former President, Enron, currently serving a 24-year prison sentence following convictions on multiple federal felony charges.</span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Georgia; color: black; "><b>7</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia">"Countrywide is a great American story.<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black"> </span></span>Countrywide was one of the greatest companies in the history of this country, and probably made more difference to society, to the integrity of our society, than any company in the history of America.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <u1:p></u1:p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Georgia">- Angelo Mozilo, CEO, Countrywide Financial, viewed as single greatest contributor to the subprime mortgage crisis.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:black"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia">(“In terms of being unresponsive to what was happening, to sticking it out the longest, and continuing to justify the garbage they were selling, Countrywide was the worst lender,” said Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates. “And anytime states tried to pass responsible lending laws, Countrywide was fighting it tooth and nail.”)</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><b>8</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">"Countries don't go out of business."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">- Walter Wriston, First National City / Citibank, early pioneer of the banking industry pursuing credit card business. Also noted, "Capital goes where it's welcome and stays where it's well treated."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>9</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10.5pt;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" >At some point, the disruptive event will be so significant that instead of liquidity filling in, the liquidity will go the other way. I don’t think we’re at that point. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" >When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">."</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">- </span><span class="Apple-style-span" >Charles Prince, former CEO, Citigroup, July 2007. Four months later, he abruptly retired from the company following massive CDO and MBS-related losses, collecting a $38 million pay package. [<a href="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2007/07/musical-chairs-theory-of-markets-chuck.html">naked capitalism</a>, July 2007</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">]</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>10</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">"The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government management rather than by inherent instability of the private economy."</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12pt; ">- famed economist Milton Friedman, 1962, taking a stand against regulatory measures.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><b>11</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:Georgia">"The parties to these kinds of contracts are largely sophisticated financial institutions that would appear to be eminently capable of protecting themselves from fraud and counterparty insolvencies</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Georgia">.<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:Georgia">To date there has been no clear evidence of a need for additional regulation of the institutional OTC derivatives market, and we would submit that proponents of such regulation must bear the burden of demonstrating that need."</span><span style="font-family:Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS";mso-bidi-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p></p><p></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span">- Larry Summers, Secretary of the Treasury (1999-2001), Director of the White House National Economic Council, in remarks during testifying before Congress in July 1998 regarding debate within the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on how to "maintain adequate regulatory safeguards without impairing the ability of the OTC derivatives market to grow". Upon the 1999 removal of the separation between investment and commercial banks via the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm%E2%80%93Leach%E2%80%93Bliley_Act">Gramm-Leach-Billey Act</a>, Summers noted, "With this bill, the American financial system takes a major step forward towards the 20th century".</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><b>12</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">"....Apologists for the financial industry talk of rational actors pursuing their interests in ways that may have been greedy but never veered into illegal or unethical behavior. After all, many executives, such as Dick Fuld, of Lehman Brothers, who believed in profit-making instruments like collateralized debt obligations and credit-default swaps, wound up losing their jobs and their companies. Doesn’t that prove their good faith? [Charles] Ferguson will have none of it. He uses interviews and historical information to suggest that many of the transactions weren’t rational at all. They may have been profitable in the short term, but they were destructive to the companies the executives worked for, and he demonstrates that anyone with common sense and a skeptical view of unregulated financial markets could have seen the dangers coming. None of the senior public officials with an ideological commitment to deregulation, like Alan Greenspan, Hank Paulson, and Ben Bernanke, and none of the investment-bank executives who made hundreds of millions from the C.D.O. boom were willing to speak to Ferguson on camera. So he brings forth the savants who warned of the impending crisis early on: Nouriel Roubini, of New York University, whose musical Persian-Israeli-Turkish-accented English is delightful; and Raghuram Rajan, now of the University of Chicago, who, in 2005, while serving as the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, delivered a paper warning of the disaster to come in front of an audience that included Alan Greenspan and Larry Summers, and was ignored or criticized for his efforts. Roubini and Rajan, awed by the size of the crisis they were unable to prevent, are now sombre models of contained ego and radiant pride.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black">Nothing like the same could be said of the academic economists, including Glenn Hubbard and Frederic Mishkin, of Columbia Business School, and Martin Feldstein and John Campbell, of Harvard, who hem and haw and evade the simplest questions about conflict of interest or bad advice. Ferguson, interviewing them from behind the camera (Matt Damon narrates the film), questions them with increasing exasperation, and, one after another, the academics disgrace themselves. Ferguson finds a hero in none other than Eliot Spitzer, who prosecuted fraud in the financial industry in 2002. Five years ago, expensive evenings with hookers and drugs were part of the exhilarated Manhattan madness of the investment-banking life. The underlings who procured such services—hiding the costs in phony expense chits—could now be flipped and forced to testify against their bosses, who may be guilty of much more consequential malfeasance. With perfect tact, Spitzer says that he might not be the most appropriate person to suggest such a course for prosecutors. But he suggests it nonetheless...."</span></span></p><p></p></span></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">- David Denby, "<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2010/10/18/101018crci_cinema_denby">Hearing Things</a>," review of Charles Ferguson's <i>Inside Job,</i> <i>The New Yorker</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span">, October 2010<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; "><b>13</b> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p></div><p style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left: 0in;line-height:17.6pt"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; color: black; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span">"The symbol of all relationships among such men, the moral symbol of respect for human beings, is the trader. We, who live by values, not by loot are traders, both in manner and spirit. A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved. A trader does not ask to be paid for his failures, nor does he ask to be loved for his flaws. A trader does not squander his body as fodder, or his soul as alms. Just as he does not give his work except in trade for material values, so he does not give the values of his spirit—his love, his friendship, his esteem—except in payment and in trade for human virtue, in payment for his own selfish pleasure, which he receives from men he can respect. The mystic parasites who have, throughout the ages, reviled the trader and held him in contempt, while honoring the beggars and the looters, have known the secret motive of the sneers: a trader is the entity they dread—a man of justice."</span></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span">- Ayn Rand, <i>Atlas Shrugged</i>, 1957, encomium to the virtues of the money trader.</span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMjk4u369q3PeSs-XX929vryXJdwv13HwsqyRCD-R8FkE6YmLbdifAHTCKKwzN9ufR-tzts7o3aXeZdXtoNkKZR-h-ayZXE0mpZPXYM-34PBrYjvSlHHFNd5aEFeqbkpjEjS97cxY18Ts/s1600/skilling.gi.top.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 273px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMjk4u369q3PeSs-XX929vryXJdwv13HwsqyRCD-R8FkE6YmLbdifAHTCKKwzN9ufR-tzts7o3aXeZdXtoNkKZR-h-ayZXE0mpZPXYM-34PBrYjvSlHHFNd5aEFeqbkpjEjS97cxY18Ts/s400/skilling.gi.top.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5637031341423827042" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-685172261163722182011-08-01T12:16:00.000-07:002011-08-01T12:23:31.865-07:00Books, 420 Characters (July Round-Up)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgreh0wVJVIoIM9Uaqe0Z_vVrqYz-6npeOja6F5g-jwXHe7p2HQeelcJrKTvszW_jGKFcFKS98Kz5O3Qg15fn-rjIbRFPzs7Zm3o6MrLK-c-1YnizgtDgQazRHSMFDUm4wD6Bow6qmCchE/s1600/the-pale-king-cover.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgreh0wVJVIoIM9Uaqe0Z_vVrqYz-6npeOja6F5g-jwXHe7p2HQeelcJrKTvszW_jGKFcFKS98Kz5O3Qg15fn-rjIbRFPzs7Zm3o6MrLK-c-1YnizgtDgQazRHSMFDUm4wD6Bow6qmCchE/s400/the-pale-king-cover.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635969331710572754" /></a><br /><br /><div>The month of July passed with several mini-book reviews not being uploaded to the blog. That doesn't mean I haven't been reading, though - in fact, it was a pretty good month.<div><br /></div><div>**********************************************************************</div><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">Frank Dikotter, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Maos-Great-Famine-Devastating-Catastrophe/dp/0802777686">Mao’s Great Famine; The History Of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962</a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> </span></i>Mao’s Great Leap Forward is less familiar than the Holocaust or Great Purge, yet as Dikotter insists, Mao was clearly as evil as Hitler or Stalin. The starvation was not accidental, but deliberate, like a death camp. This grim book details how one ruler murdered 45 million citizens in the name of progress. Anybody interested in the dangers of collectivist thinking should put down Ayn Rand and pick up this account.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">Tristan Garcia, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hate-Romance-Novel-Tristan-Garcia/dp/0865479119">Hate: A Romance</a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> French fiction often incorporates politics without seeming didactic, unlike similar attempts by American authors, which maybe says something about the cultural benefits of not consigning politics to the sidelines, or maybe just highlights American tendencies towards didacticism. A philosophical novel of AIDS in Paris, the 1990s, shifting sands on the intellectual beach, and good plain love and hate. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"><p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> </p></span><p></p></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">Randall Jarrell, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226393755/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0226393747&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1ENZQ174R98KB97AP326">Pictures From An Institution</a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sole novel from a poet whose own work often seemed uneasy with the modern world – but less a novel than a brilliant, sustained parade of epigrams. A thinly disguised Sarah Lawrence becomes “Benton College,” and a cast of campus characters jockey and hustle for position in prose that will have even seasoned readers reaching for the dictionary. Higher education has rarely been savaged so knowingly.</p></div><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">David Lipsky, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Although-Course-You-Becoming-Yourself/dp/030759243X">Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself; A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace</a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">One interpretation – decade-old conversations literally transcribed and rushed to publication in the aftermath of tragic suicide. Another, more generous, interpretation – rare fly-on-wall opportunity to sit in with a young author circa 1996 as he muses on matters ranging from Pauline Kael and Heidegger to his own discomfiting brush with fame. Always the smartest guy in the room, Wallace – and often the kindest, too.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">David Foster Wallace, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pale-King-David-Foster-Wallace/dp/0316074233/ref=pd_sim_b_2">The Pale King</a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Unfinished when Wallace ended his life, the 500+ pages of this novel about IRS agents assume an eerie completion, due to fragmented characters seen through the unforgiving lens of itemized deductions. But in essence this novel is emotional and political – emotional in the way dead-end lives are painted with sympathy, political in that Wallace suggests those able to withstand boredom will help carry us to our doom.</p><p></p></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-39701248880160552011-07-07T10:08:00.000-07:002011-07-07T10:28:20.240-07:00Glenn Beck's Final Program, In His Own Words, Rendered In Verse: COMRADES!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOxo2gPPLD7kMmAxqEBCed42Y6KVkoXFLOWZmGxwz4CM6oLtIKbBEZTucd8kHtKwas-DLRJTapQepb5LU5n2GMRYhTztzGkhXlkOU1ACQxJbRiDK_807hc4IcgGuWbB3A94rkvLp_AzDg/s1600/GlennBeck.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOxo2gPPLD7kMmAxqEBCed42Y6KVkoXFLOWZmGxwz4CM6oLtIKbBEZTucd8kHtKwas-DLRJTapQepb5LU5n2GMRYhTztzGkhXlkOU1ACQxJbRiDK_807hc4IcgGuWbB3A94rkvLp_AzDg/s400/GlennBeck.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5626658723227061234" /></a><div><br /></div><div>With <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/world/europe/08britain.html?hp">the news of Rupert Murdoch's latest transgression</a> against taste, journalistic standards, and human decency making headlines in both Great Britain and the United States, the departure last week of Murdoch's own Glenn Beck already seems like ancient history - his show the antics of a clown rather than the actions of a despot. And there's enough of the self-learner inside me to have a small amount of respect for Beck's autodidacticism, however wrong-headed and ignorant it was most of the time. Still, his momentary absence from the non-subscribing airwaves should give all but his most rabid fans a sense of relief- our contemporary Father Coughlin has stepped down. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the spirit of Beck's fragmented approach to reality and fever-pitch monologues, I offer a poem in his honor - words spoken during his final program, rendered in verse.</div><div><br /></div><div>***************************************************</div><div><br /></div><div><b>COMRADES!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Comrades!</div><div>Comrades, there is good news from the Western Front!</div><div>This is the last episode of the Glenn Beck program.</div><div>We've learned a lot</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>together.</div><div>Buckle up, because it could get very bumpy.</div><div>You name it,</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>we have it.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Out of control government</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>George Soros theater</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Ben Franklin, Andrew Jackson, Alexander Hamilton, the Black </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Founders</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Fascism</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Socialism</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Unions and their roots in Communism</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The Coming Insurrection</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Hitler Youth</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Heil Hitler!</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Margaret Sanger</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The <i>other </i>NRA</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Bullying & intimidation</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>ACORN</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The Caliphate</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>This Mussolini thing.........Hitler</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The real Thomas Jefferson, the wives of the Signers, George Washington's Sacred Fire, the <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>five thousand year leap, the road to serfdom</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Have you ever - <i>ever </i>- heard this before?</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>There's no truth.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Staggeringly long monologues.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Holding money.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Great evil.</div><div><br /></div><div>I always hated philosophy, because......</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I love philosophy.</div><div>We have people who actually make magnets.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><i>"Well, we only call a wheel a wheel because we <b>call </b>it a wheel"</i></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-style: italic; white-space: pre; "> </span>-- shut up.</div><div><br /></div><div>To paraphrase Martin Luther King.</div><div>This is the dumbest damn show on television.</div><div>We can use it to teach people things.</div><div>Not really television.</div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-85464282027079715572011-07-01T11:43:00.000-07:002011-07-01T11:48:31.217-07:00Books, 420 Characters (June 27 - July 1) Postman & Bernhard<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCQaFuqdaLE_ZTeTpdgJOQiVV1MRPFE5NWL6DUu25BjmiP1BIhUmvb3TKxK4momhV22lCN8vKiQtsrk4dUSaLcXTLQMob4NEcekMh5_tspGA83RnK22yVJy8ttVcL43uXR0jXO1vJ_0o/s1600/my-prizes.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 275px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbCQaFuqdaLE_ZTeTpdgJOQiVV1MRPFE5NWL6DUu25BjmiP1BIhUmvb3TKxK4momhV22lCN8vKiQtsrk4dUSaLcXTLQMob4NEcekMh5_tspGA83RnK22yVJy8ttVcL43uXR0jXO1vJ_0o/s400/my-prizes.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5624456944341964114" /></a><br /><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">Neil Postman, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Amusing-Ourselves-Death-Discourse-Business/dp/0140094385">Amusing Ourselves To Death; Public Discourse In The Age Of Show Business</a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">Media culture tracts expire faster than skim milk, yet this 1985 volume on the collusion between journalism and entertainment has only grown in stature since publication. Game show elections, education as amusement, news as easily-digestible diversion – Postman saw it all at the dawn of all-encompassing media. Forget the totalitarian nightmare of 1984. Huxley predicted rightly we’d come to love our oppression. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Thomas Bernhard, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/My-Prizes-Accounting-Thomas-Bernhard/dp/0307272877">My Prizes: An Accounting</a></i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" >Charlie Sheen is not a bad boy – Thomas Bernhard was a bad boy. The Austrian writer, whose will denied his home country future publication, remembers little about his literary awards aside from the monetary prizes attached and personal slights suffered during each ceremony, most from politicians and other writers. The personification of ungracious, he bites the hand that feeds him and chews with his mouth open.</span></p></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-69570711783235125322011-06-28T11:11:00.000-07:002011-06-28T12:08:06.861-07:00The Long Road To Equality: How The Other Side Has Always Been Wrong<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8oGE3vLPKIcPGU6SUhTNG17eMOJEsHqSdTpOrNrCF99uwuxjKisZBmKJzA5skOpog-oFPBnNUeHbB6yU6TqBpyK-2EJEFFgfvwa85SgmPs8gMRD0uFs6TiZH2_D8zN9nW8zju65eeeSo/s1600/NUMBERR_WUN.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8oGE3vLPKIcPGU6SUhTNG17eMOJEsHqSdTpOrNrCF99uwuxjKisZBmKJzA5skOpog-oFPBnNUeHbB6yU6TqBpyK-2EJEFFgfvwa85SgmPs8gMRD0uFs6TiZH2_D8zN9nW8zju65eeeSo/s400/NUMBERR_WUN.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623335376173095442" /></a><br /><div>(<i>Judge Leander Perez, Dixiecrat and Segregationist, 1968)</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMJQB0GAPRJVooCF8oqzgDYyxd61TGbsaVhp34922bt7PO2DEdgHmG6S-60RNsnEMr63bsUqedHVCPb4YMznLD9JxxQ-lSKrZqKiImzXtwdLokobk04OGOKeEIi1rH7j7HVme8JfByXJU/s1600/NUMBERR_TWO.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMJQB0GAPRJVooCF8oqzgDYyxd61TGbsaVhp34922bt7PO2DEdgHmG6S-60RNsnEMr63bsUqedHVCPb4YMznLD9JxxQ-lSKrZqKiImzXtwdLokobk04OGOKeEIi1rH7j7HVme8JfByXJU/s400/NUMBERR_TWO.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5623335279672306610" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">(<i>Archbishop Timothy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Dolan</span></span></span>, Marriage Equality opponent)</i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's safe to say that not everybody in or outside of New York was elated by the late-breaking news that the New York State Legislature, with a Republican-controlled Senate, had legalized same-sex marriage after weeks of debate and national attention, becoming the largest state to make marriage equality legal. Many of the voices in opposition were relatively muted, it seems - in one sign of how much progress has been made, most dissenters fell back on legal or technical arguments rather than forecasting the end of society. Even many religious leaders expressed their <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">disappointment</span> in language that steered free of the hate and bigotry that until quite recently had defined the vast majority of the arguments against gay equality in this country.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Except, of course, it's not that simple. If most opponents to marriage equality have learned the need to couch their dissatisfaction in language suitable for the nightly news and acceptable to an increasingly open-minded public, anybody capable of analyzing basic speech patterns should have little trouble uncovering what lies beneath - namely, opinions and beliefs that differ from the segregationists and anti-miscegenation forces of decades past only in their chosen target. To glance back at the views freely and openly expressed by national politicians on television and in print just fifty years ago - to hear a Judge firmly declaim that no society has ever survived racial integration, or another Judge insist God placed different <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ethnicities</span></span> on different continents to keep them from mixing, or to hear a Southern senator dare the military to try and enforce racial equality upon his society - is to be struck by two things. One is a sort of shock that such blatantly racist and bigoted statements were unashamedly made in front of cameras or reporters. The other is to caution one's self that we haven't moved very far from those days, and that in another fifty years, the words and actions of Archbishop Timothy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Dolan</span></span>, Senator Ruben <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Diaz</span></span>, and columnist George <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Weigel</span></span> may well shock those looking back at our own struggles for equality.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">One of the great things about studying history is that it helps one stay on the right side of it. I offer six examples below - three from the past, three from last week - of individuals very much on the wrong side.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">***************************************************************************</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b><i>Firing Line</i> transcript, April 15 1968 (video segment <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p689LgBZo8">here</a>)</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>Judge Leander Perez</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">I am not a racist. I might mention I am against the Federal Government using its coercive power to force racial integration upon an unwilling free people. Because never in the history of nations has any government prior to this ever attempted to use its coercive power to force racial integration upon an unwilling free people. I am a fundamental <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Constitutionalist</span></span>. I know it is wrong fundamentally, and I know it is strictly rotten politics from Washington, and has motivated enforced integration policies of the national government.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><b>William F. Buckley</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black">Well, Governor, have you been widely misquoted? For instance, you're quoted as having said, 'Yes, the Negro is inherently immoral—yes, I think it's the brain capacity.' Is that a misquotation?"<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>Judge Leander Perez</b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black">It's not a misquotation. It's the truth. Because I know Negroes. We have a number of Negroes in our community, and I know that basically, fundamentally, they are immoral, they are unmoral. I know that to be a fact. Why should I try to hide it? I’d be untrue to myself if I tried to deny it out of cowardice.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>William F. Buckley</b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black">It’s been said of you…that you can begrudgingly admire his bluntness, he is honest about his bigotry.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>Judge Leander Perez</b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black">I’m not a bigot, sir. I’m not a bigot at all.<br /><!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>William F. Buckley</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black">But, look, whatever you are, Judge Perez, and I’m sure you’re a good many things, but you don’t have the sovereign power of the English language.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>Judge Leander Perez</b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black">No, I don’t have any control over hypocrites, over bigots – no. Over those who would deprive American citizens of their Constitutional rights. I have no power over them at all.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>William F. Buckley</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black"> Do Negroes have Constitutional rights?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>Judge Leander Perez</b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Times;color:black">Absolutely. Same as any other people. But the Negroes are certainly not exercising Constitutional rights when they go about burning down cities and crying, “Burn, baby, burn,” and “kill whitey”. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>William F. Buckley</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">Nor are whites exercising Constitutional rights when they deprive the Negroes, as they did for so many years, of the right to vote.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><b>Judge Leander Perez</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">I <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">wouldn</span></span>’t say that the Negroes have been deprived of any rights, because the Negroes have had the right to register of their own free will, sir.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">**********************************************************************************************</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "></span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black"><b>Archbishop Timothy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Dolan</span></span>, interview with John Burger, <i>Catholic Register, </i>June 24, 2011<i> (</i>link <a href="http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/archbishop-dolan-on-same-sex-marriage-vote/">here</a>)</b></span></span></span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black"><b><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Dolan</span></b></span></span></span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">They talk about us imposing our values on others. Who’s imposing on what? We have a set definition of marriage that has been part of the human endeavor from time immemorial. They’re imposing a radically new understanding of that upon something that has served as the bulwark of civilization for thousands and thousands of years.</span></span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"; border:none windowtext 0in;padding:0in"><br /></span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">I worry too about government intrusion. On my blog I said this seems to have a lot of traction in places like North Korea and Cuba and China. They’re used to government butting in and telling you, “We’ll tell you what your values are. We’ll tell you what marriage is. We’ll tell you what family is. We’ll tell you what human life is. We’ll tell you what a home means. We’ll tell you where you can live. We’ll tell you where you can work. That’s antithetical to everything the American project stands for. And yet that’s what we’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">ve</span></span> got: the government now butting into the most intimate, sacred defined principles of human existence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:13.5pt"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><b>Burger</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span style="border:none windowtext 0in;padding:0in">The irony is, in a place like China, they would never redefine marriage like this.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span style="border:none windowtext 0in;padding:0in"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><b><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Dolan</span></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">Well, they redefine what human life is, see, when you think about it. If you can say the life of the baby in the womb <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">isn</span></span>’t a human life, where are you going to stop? No wonder you go to marriage. Next thing you know, they’re going to say there’s four outs to every inning of baseball. This is crazy.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">*******************************************************************************************</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><b>Caroline County Circuit Court Judge Leon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Bazile</span>, ordering Mildred and Richard Loving to leave the state of Virginia on charges of miscegenation, 1959. This decision led directly to Supreme Court Case <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia">Loving V. Virginia</a>, 1967.</i></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span">Almighty God created the races, white, black, yellow, Malay, and red and placed them on separate continents,</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:13.0pt;color:black"> </span>and but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend the races to mix.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span">*******************************************************************************************</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><b>Televangelist Pat Robertson, 700 Club, June 27, 2011 (link <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/pat-robertson-cites-angel-rape-during-discussion-of-ny-gay-marriage-law/">here</a>)</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">I think we need to remember the term sodomy came from a town known as Sodom and Sodom was destroyed by God Almighty and the thing that they practiced was homosexual activity and even they tried to rape angels who came down there, so that's the kind of people they were. But beyond that, Jesus when He spoke of Sodom He didn't say anything about the homosexuality he talked about just the fact that business was as usual until God decided to destroy it. And He sent an angel down there and He said to Lot and his family, ‘get out now because I'm gonna destroy this whole area.' That's where sodomy came from, we use the term sodomy and it means Sodom. What's it like? We're heading that way as a nation. In history there's never been a civilization ever in history that has embraced homosexuality and turned away from traditional fidelity, traditional marriage, traditional child-rearing, and has survived. There isn't one single civilization that has survived that openly embraced homosexuality. So you say, "what's going to happen to America?" Well if history is any guide, the same thing's going to happen to us.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">*******************************************************************************</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgH7WgtIU2k">speech</a> during campaign for President, 1948</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt">There's not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.</span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt">**********************************************************************************</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="apple-style-span"><b>Columnist George Weigel, <i>National Review Online, </i>June 27 2011 (link <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270518/gay-marriage-libertarians-and-civil-rights-george-weigel">here</a>)</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><span class="apple-style-span">“Gay marriage” in fact represents a vast expansion of state power: In this instance, the state of New York is declaring that it has the competence to redefine a basic human institution in order to satisfy the demands of an interest group looking for the kind of social acceptance that putatively comes from legal recognition. But as Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and others argued during the days before the fateful vote on June 24, the state of New York does not have such competence, and the assertion that it does casts an ominous shadow over the future.<span style="color:black"> For if the state in fact has the competence, or authority, to declare that Adam and Steve, or Eve and Evelyn, are married, and has the related authority to compel others to recognize such marriages as the equivalent of what we have known as marriage for millennia, then why stop at marriage between two men or two women? Why not polyamory or polygamy? Why can’t any combination of men and women sharing financial resources and body parts declare itself a marriage, and then demand from the state a redress of its grievances and legal recognition of it as a family? On what principled ground is the New York state legislature, or any other state legislature, going to say “No” to that, once it has declared that Adam and Steve, or Eve and Evelyn, can in fact get married according to the laws of the state?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; ">What the gay lobby proposes in the matter of marriage is precisely the opposite of this. Marriage, as both religious and secular thinkers have acknowledged for millennia, is a social institution that is older than the state and that precedes the state. The task of a just state is to recognize and support this older, prior social institution; it is not to attempt its redefinition. To do the latter involves indulging the totalitarian temptation that lurks within all modern states: the temptation to remanufacture reality. The American civil-rights movement was a call to recognize moral reality; the call for gay marriage is a call to reinvent reality to fit an agenda of personal willfulness. The gay-marriage movement is thus not the heir of the civil-rights movement; it is the heir of Bull Connor and others who tried to impose their false idea of moral reality on others by coercive state power.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> </span></span></p></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color:black"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> </span></span></p></span></span><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-7624058619647556572011-06-24T08:19:00.000-07:002011-06-24T08:22:25.303-07:00Books, 420 Characters (June 20-24)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHvvUIb9bMMp4WEOg-R_ds1gDkhCLowuVnSLMx1rWcy-INFUXVsVtxXi5RqTWu64VhPjb9q40_Jtqt8tXcLCr0W7yhiTgjLFsNbSsdcKr0ah62xsYo1YWmmmXTpEUfepnJhWXucuN3UI/s1600/elif.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdHvvUIb9bMMp4WEOg-R_ds1gDkhCLowuVnSLMx1rWcy-INFUXVsVtxXi5RqTWu64VhPjb9q40_Jtqt8tXcLCr0W7yhiTgjLFsNbSsdcKr0ah62xsYo1YWmmmXTpEUfepnJhWXucuN3UI/s400/elif.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621806482854957490" /></a><br /><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">G.B. Edwards, <i>The Book Of Ebenezer Le Page<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Posthumously published, sole completed novel by lifetime civil servant once hoped to be “a new D. H. Lawrence”. Colloquial diary of a brooding man who never left the Isle of Guernsey, Le Page nevertheless sees the world from his small corner of his small island. As 17<sup><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">th</span></sup> century life is dragged into modernity, contempt is heaped upon the arrival of technology, Nazis, and tourists. The latter worries him most.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; "><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Elif</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Batuman</span>, <i>The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books And The People Who Read Them</i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Part journalism, part essay, part lit <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">crit</span>, part memoir, and all you need to know is that this Turkish-American woman can write most journalists/essayists/critics/ <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">memoirists</span> under the table. And funny – you may not think Isaac Babel conferences promise comedy gold, but you probably never attended one with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Elif</span>. Discovering Old Uzbek had 100 different words for crying, she rethinks her summer vacation in Samarkand.</p></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-27174254877019322652011-06-22T14:49:00.000-07:002011-06-22T21:14:52.924-07:00Father's Day Follow Up: Only Believers Love Their Children<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcEnUU820HD0jaN64-ortGSfB3d047coHEthPzSuzfn5K_ooEExrhDcE_Zuxr4L5vwR5lKZ9byKZQnpYjWHPRKGsLBiLRSECglocDcdz_dahdu5kxDCYWCQ7_vnfNo22NOShnN1fnYe0o/s1600/jeezus.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 346px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcEnUU820HD0jaN64-ortGSfB3d047coHEthPzSuzfn5K_ooEExrhDcE_Zuxr4L5vwR5lKZ9byKZQnpYjWHPRKGsLBiLRSECglocDcdz_dahdu5kxDCYWCQ7_vnfNo22NOShnN1fnYe0o/s400/jeezus.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621164685177329602" /></a><br /><div>Having recently been welcomed into the clergy so as to officiate over the wedding ceremony for two good friends this upcoming September, I was surprised to note that this old non-believer still had enough of the infidel in him to react strongly to a recent article posted by columnist Jeffrey Goldberg over at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Bloomberg</span> News. Entitled <i>A Father's Day Lesson About Children And Life</i>, it's a fairly typical remembrance day column in which the essayist finds some notable, heartwarming, or just plain bizarre story to serve as a lead-in to their rather predictable punch line. In Goldberg's case, it was the undeniably heart-rending story of a father who sacrificed his own life to save his son by jumping into a tank of raw sewage. This man's son was twenty years old and had fallen into a septic tank on the family property. His son also had <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Down's</span> Syndrome, and the father made the decision to lift his son above the sewage until help came, at which point the heroic father had succumbed. </div><div><br /></div><div>Goldberg chooses to relate this story through the prism of religious faith, especially dwelling on the family's faith when recounting their decision not to undergo an amniocentesis despite the pregnant mother's advanced age and rejecting implicitly the possibility of terminating the pregnancy had the child turned out to be stricken with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Down's</span> Syndrome. This is a topic that deserves greater discussion, even though I wish Goldberg wouldn't look down at individuals unwilling or unable to embrace the life-changing challenge of a special needs child. </div><div><br /></div><div>But what really caught my attention was this paragraph near the end of the article, after <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">several</span> encomiums to the power of faith and parenthood:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; "><i>I’m reasonably sure an atheist would sacrifice his life for his child. But I also don’t doubt that Thomas <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Vander</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Woude</span>’s powerful faith cleared the path into the tank. A person who has an articulated calling, who believes in something larger than himself, could more immediately accept the gravity of the moment.</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; "><br /></span></div><div>It's that "reasonably" line that most irks. I wonder if Goldberg's editor would have left in the "reasonably sure" bit if the questionable character being referred to wasn't the much-maligned atheist but a Muslim or a Buddhist. Or if Goldberg was making some kind of comparison of humanity in which Africans or gay men were being compared to another group of some kind. Why make the appalling suggestion that fathers or mothers who don't regularly visit a church or a synagogue would be more likely than the pious Christian to sit back and watch their child drown in raw sewage? Why insert such an obnoxious opinion into an otherwise heartwarming story unless the point of the essay was to castigate and shame non-believers?</div><div><br /></div><div>A bit of a theologian myself even before I was ordained, I think it would perhaps be helpful to point out to Mr. Goldberg that he is certainly correct in supposing that certain strands of religious thought might indeed presuppose someone towards making sacrifices regarding their children. But he seems to have it slightly backwards. Thumbing through my dog-eared copy of the Bible, I see several notable examples <i>not</i> of parents <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">sacrificing</span> themselves for their children, but <i>literally </i><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">sacrificing</span> their children. Flipping over to Genesis 22, I read of how Abraham unquestioningly sets forth with his son Isaac to slaughter him like a goat on Mount Moriah after receiving the command from God, only pulling the blade away at the last second when God decides Abraham fears Him "enough". For this act - the act of willingly and unquestioningly setting out to murder one's child - Abraham is shown to be virtuous and properly fearful, although not perhaps the best dad. Flipping forward to the New Testament, or maybe just turning on Mel Gibson's <i>The Passion Of The Christ</i>, I see verse after verse describing how Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was sent by his father to earth in order to be sacrificed on a cross, an ordeal that at least Matthew and Mark suggest concluded with the suffering son crying to his father "Why have you forsaken me?" </div><div><br /></div><div>I know I'm just a non-believing infidel, and therefore Mr. Goldberg would have you believe that it's up for debate whether I would consider risking my own life to save my seven-month-old son (currently sleeping, by the way - I've been watching him doze via baby monitor as I type this up, just to yank this essay out of the theoretical zone). I certainly hope that's not a situation I ever find myself in. But before Mr. Goldberg pulls another sneering, sanctimonious comment out of his treasure box of bile, I'd like to at least put to rest any concern that I might ever slaughter my child on an altar or nail him to a tree. That's the sort of barbarity we atheists had enough of around about the time we walked away from our faiths. </div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-20572905910603474272011-06-17T08:14:00.000-07:002011-06-17T08:46:05.869-07:00Books, in 420 Characters<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXLdP4devwAb9txe0ZLB7s9goy67UxApx1P_e9Cj47H89pY3jGQ87dPd7RPuM0EpDAig7hHF6tqlk0kBhiuoRZMlxzD04hAOsKXQ_mNgj7chSz8HxwDFzthl4JY2gEYdRvqdefrttp84I/s1600/P_SMITH.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 280px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXLdP4devwAb9txe0ZLB7s9goy67UxApx1P_e9Cj47H89pY3jGQ87dPd7RPuM0EpDAig7hHF6tqlk0kBhiuoRZMlxzD04hAOsKXQ_mNgj7chSz8HxwDFzthl4JY2gEYdRvqdefrttp84I/s400/P_SMITH.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619214910139266546" /></a><br />The death of a blog rarely means anything more than just another collection of rambling thoughts and blurry photographs mercifully shut down and left to drift into the online ether. Every once in a while, out of either curiosity or boredom, I'll take advantage of the helpful "Next Blog" option at the top of most Blogger-sponsored sites, and will be treated to endless screens of totally unrelated examples of the odd thematic choices people settle upon when launching a blog of their own. Plenty of food blogs, of course, but plenty more mommy, parenting, or "family" blogs that often sprinkle random advice with page after numbing page of family photos and close-ups of the pet dog. A personal favorite remains a quilting blog I stumbled across a few months back after a friend pointed it out to me. The sight of the aging quilter's vacation photos, including one in which somebody joyfully plunges down a mild <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">waterslide</span>, is not something I'll soon forget.<div><br /></div><div>This blog is not dead - yet, as the Pythons said. Not quite willing to inflict baby tips and infant photos on the world, I've found that my free time is best served reading rather than ranting - that as fun as it may be to highlight political nonsense, both my blood pressure and my intellectual health might be better served spending time with people whose minds I respect rather than disdain. In addition, a possible new outlet for writing and critical thought has recently opened up, and while the project may be some weeks or months away from beginning, that material will necessarily be occupying most of my writing time.</div><div><br /></div><div>So rather than let this space sit vacant for weeks at a time, I'm going to begin filling in the dead space with much shorter bursts of thought. Epigrams, not essays. Thoughts, not screeds.</div><div><br /></div><div>Being the primary caregiver to a six month child has left me with more time for reading than I'd suspected (yeah, I know, this may change), so I've begun trying to awkwardly force the strict limitations of social media into some sort of critical discourse. Simply put, is it possible to use the 420-character allotment bestowed on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Facebook</span> users to try and sum up a recently read book, without falling back on banalities like "this was a good read" or the like? Can 420 characters (spaces included, man!) encompass deeper thoughts than where one is in relation to Friday or how good a cup of coffee sounds right about now? Of course it can - in fact, it often does. But not often enough. </div><div><br /></div><div>Each Friday, the reviews I've posted over the past week on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">FB</span> will be dumped here. Those are the rules. We'll see how long this continues. But even <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">dribs</span> and drabs of thought are better than no thoughts at all.</div><div><br /></div><div>*********************************************************************</div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">Patti Smith, <i>Just Kids<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> The only rock poet worth parsing takes her Dylan obsession one step further, and tops his “Chronicles” as rock autobiography, rescuing Robert Mapplethorpe the artist from the culture war pawn he’d been turned into. Tender, smart, funny. Also: reminds us that NY <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">bohemia</span> at one point was so small and self-contained it encompassed The Chelsea Hotel and a few bars. Wish I had been there.</p></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">Cathleen <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Schine</span>, <i>She Is Me<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Quick read, with brains. Funny, too. But don’t tell V.S. Naipaul the plot. Three generations of women, two battling cancer, two having affairs, one a late-life lesbian awakening, one a vehicular romp after a mate fails to bond with a stray dog. Also, lusting after the producer for <i>Mrs. B</i>, a Madame Bovary<i> </i>screenplay. <i>“It was as if her entire life had been leading her here</i>,” it says right before the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Sapphic</span> plunge.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; ">Aharon <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Appelfeld</span>, <i>The Retreat</i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">German-speaking Jew, refusing to write “in the language of the murderers,” offers in his eleventh novel an unsettling extended metaphor – a remote alpine retreat outside Austria training Jews to pass as gentiles. The 1937 setting grounds the metaphor in reality, even if the murderers are rarely specified. In the end, the retreat fails, the inhabitants having already been exiled. Holocaust and diaspora, in 164 pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p></p></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-4545249123475886672011-05-16T15:22:00.000-07:002011-05-17T12:08:44.804-07:00Flip, Flop, Don't Stop: Newt Gingrich Comes On Strong<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcoNmDIulCBzgHMrmrusuClUytYAtwYtUvMZWJzr0LKeckHWatpMan9UWZop7JWw5V7soxvcHgN1VgK_VSFywYoMW4xEN1n7gaN4DKvbQplTiJPJ_QrjueQ_CSqa3pax-taenoYgJC21A/s1600/old-navy-flip-flop.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 285px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcoNmDIulCBzgHMrmrusuClUytYAtwYtUvMZWJzr0LKeckHWatpMan9UWZop7JWw5V7soxvcHgN1VgK_VSFywYoMW4xEN1n7gaN4DKvbQplTiJPJ_QrjueQ_CSqa3pax-taenoYgJC21A/s400/old-navy-flip-flop.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607455068990484354" /></a><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><br /></span><div><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Sheesh</span>, the fickle public - complain about the unwavering surety of George W. Bush, the President Who Harbors No Regrets, and along comes the I'll-Try-Anything-For-One-Voting-Cycle claque of Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, and <i>still</i> we complain.<div><br /></div><div>Well.....certainly. Iron clad opinions often encase little more than mirthless ideologies, which is why many of us continually push back against the puritans. It's one thing to admire Rand Paul's stance on any given matter, applying basic follow-the-libertarian-arrow directions from Point A to Point B. Comforting as an old sweater. It's another to actually put such principles into place, or to even find them appealing (I mean, any ne'er-do-well can have their <i>principles</i>). Questioning minds coming face to face with the slack-jawed glaze of the utterly convinced is what partly sustains the myth of the Independent Voter - non-wonks who think one thing and maybe think another and just might hear you out on the debt ceiling or Libyan firefights. </div><div><br /></div><div>Given the unimpeachable offense of political figures changing their mind, why do so many of us throw up our hands when political figures do just that - prove in real time that opinions or stances may shift to either the left or right column? Why do we squirm in embarrassment for Mitt Romney as he attempts to distance himself from one of his most lauded political achievements, or roll our eyes as Newt Gingrich doubles back with gymnastic agility from a decree thundered out just weeks or days prior, or pound the table when John Kerry refuses to cop to the "liberal" tag because he isn't sure it will go over in Indiana? It must be because in each instance, we can almost smell the carbon burn from the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">klieg</span> lights just out of view - that sinking realization that our political class is once again barfing up a line of well-oiled <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">weathervanes</span>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Both Gingrich and Romney strike me as rational individuals who probably occupy a centrally-located aisle of political theater when not running for president. But if Romney has long suffered from the disdain of GOP faithful who can't forgive any politician for working with the Massachusetts legislature, may I humbly suggest we begin paying more mind to the thrice-married adulterer currently hawking his wares outside the evangelical camp? At least Romney has the decency to let a few years elapse before returning as a Changed Man. Gingrich seems to be under the mistaken impression that simply because he announced his run for the Oval Office via Twitter that his many pronouncements can drop with the eerily foreshortened half-life common to social media tools. The poor fella can barely wait out a single news cycle - be it one month or even a single twenty-four hour span - before showing off his latest breakthrough. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm an ideas man myself. Coherent theories come together slowly, sometimes sloppily. Take your time, I say. Don't be afraid to change your mind, reverse direction, even rip up the design. Even great political theorists double back on themselves. Maybe only the great ones do. But somebody please prescribe Mr. Gingrich some Ritalin. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">ADHD</span> is obnoxiously over-diagnosed, but I think we've got the real deal here. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>**************************************************************************************</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" >Newt Gingrich on Paul Ryan's GOP Budget Plan, April 5, 2011</span></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><p style="line-height: 19px; font-weight: normal; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; "><i>"Paul Ryan has stepped up to the plate. This is a very, very serious budget and I think rivals with [what] John <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Kasich</span> did as budget chairman in getting to a balanced budget in the 1990s, just for the scale and courage involved…..</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; font-weight: normal; "></span></b></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; "><i>Paul Ryan is going to define modern conservatism at a serious level. You can quibble over details but the general shape of what he's doing will define 2012 for Republicans</i>."</p><p></p><p style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "></span></b></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; "><b><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-weight: normal; white-space: pre; "> </span><i>- Bill Bennett interview, April 5 2011</i></b></p><p></p><p style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; "></span></b></span></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; "><b><i><br /></i></b></p><p></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; "></p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; display: inline !important; "></p><p style="margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: initial; outline-style: none; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; font-weight: 900; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><b>Newt Gingrich on Paul Ryan's GOP Budget Plan, May 15, 2011</b></span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: initial; outline-style: none; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; "></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: initial; outline-style: none; outline-color: initial; font-size: 0.94em; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; ">REP. GINGRICH: <i>I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate. I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare system with more choices for seniors. But there are specific things you can do. At the Center for Health Transformation, which I helped found, we published a book called "Stop Paying the Crooks." We thought that was a clear enough, simple enough idea, even for Washington. We--between Medicare and Medicaid, we pay between $70 billion and $120 billion a year to crooks. And IBM has agreed to help solve it, American Express has agreed to help solve it, Visa's agreed to help solve it. You can't get anybody in this town to look at it. That's, that's almost $1 trillion over a decade. So there are things you can do to improve Medicare.</i></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 0.94em; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; ">MR. GREGORY: <i>But not what Paul Ryan is suggesting, which is completely changing Medicare.</i></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 0.94em; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.6em; ">REP. GINGRICH: <i>I, I think that, I think, I think that that is too big a jump. I think what you want to have is a system where people voluntarily migrate to better outcomes, better solutions, better options, not one where you suddenly impose upon the--I don't want to--I'm against <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Obamacare</span>, which is imposing radical change, and I would be against a conservative imposing radical change.</i></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 0.94em; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="font-weight: normal; white-space: pre; "> </span><b><i>-Meet The Press interview, May 15 2011</i></b></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 0.94em; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; "><b><i><br /></i></b></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 0.94em; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; "><b><i>**********************************************************************************************</i></b></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 0.94em; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; "><b><i><br /></i></b></p><p style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 0.94em; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><b>Newt Gingrich Discussing Mandates in Health Care, 2005</b></span></i></b></p><p style="margin-top: 0em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0.6em; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; "></p><p style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; ">"You have the right to be part of the lowest-cost insurance pool and you have a responsibility to buy insurance. ... We need some significant changes to ensure that every American is insured, but we should make it clear that a 21st Century Intelligent System requires everyone to participate in the insurance system.....<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; font-weight: normal; "></span></b></span></i></b></span></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; display: inline !important; "><i>People whose income is too low should receive Medicaid vouchers and tax credits to buy insurance.....Large risk pools (association health plans are one model) should be established so low-income people can buy insurance as inexpensively as large corporations. Furthermore, it should be possible to buy your health insurance on-line to lower the cost as much as possible."</i></p><p></p><p style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i>-from his book "Winning The Future," 2005</i></b></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i><br /></i></b></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><b>Newt Gingrich Discussing Mandates in Health Care, May 15, 2011</b></span></i></b></span></i></b></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-weight: normal; "><br /></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-weight: normal; ">"<i>I've said consistently we ought to have some requirement that you either have health insurance or you post a bond or in some way you indicate you're going to be held accountable."</i></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b></b></span></b></span></p><p style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; display: inline !important; "><b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i>-Meet The Press interview, May 15 2011</i></b></span></b></b></p><p></p><p style="font-weight: bold; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-weight: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b></b></span></b></span></p><p style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; display: inline !important; "><b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i><br /></i></b></span></b></b></p><p></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; display: inline !important; "></p><p style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><b>Newt Gingrich Discussing Mandates in Health Care, The Next Day</b></span></i></b></span></i></b></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b></b></span></b></span></p><p style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; display: inline !important; "><b><b><b><b><b><i><b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-weight: normal; "><br /></span></b></span></i></b></span></i></b></span></b></b></i></b></b></b></b></b></p><p></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><b><b></b></b></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; display: inline !important; "><b><b><b><b><b><i><b><b><b><i><b><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-weight: normal; ">I am for the repeal of Obamacare and I am against any effort to impose a federal mandate on anyone because it is fundamentally wrong and I believe unconstitutional."</span></b></i></b></i></b></b></b></i></b></b></b></b></b></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; "></p><p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; "></p><p></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><b><b></b></b></p><p style="list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; display: inline !important; "><b><b><b><b><b><i><b><b><b><i><b><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman', times, georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></b></i></b></i></b></b></b></i></b></b></b></b></b></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b><p style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: italic; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; line-height: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13px; display: inline !important; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><b><i>-video message posted to Gingrich website, May 16 2011</i></b></span></p></b></span></b></span><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></div></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-27285561802806091662011-05-10T19:48:00.001-07:002011-05-11T09:31:34.225-07:00Tweets From A Twit: How Sarah Palin Welcomed The Spring<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOuLYAv8Qqet_zhTgb3Fbb48I8nH87_HI2lhi894C7S18LpDAdyXCDuFhwicBcorDGl1AooDOCwDBTcbcNMz72cMYQNSpB7IDJrPoE4IVlJGKUW3STJKvicq3R72y4LK2MXa7SqZ64LHA/s1600/plain+opalin.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 357px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOuLYAv8Qqet_zhTgb3Fbb48I8nH87_HI2lhi894C7S18LpDAdyXCDuFhwicBcorDGl1AooDOCwDBTcbcNMz72cMYQNSpB7IDJrPoE4IVlJGKUW3STJKvicq3R72y4LK2MXa7SqZ64LHA/s400/plain+opalin.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5605285026521962370" /></a><br /><div><i>A little Madness in the spring / Is wholesome even for the King </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>-- Emily Dickinson</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; ">The underlying theory behind the talk radio critique of [Mitch] Daniels is basically that you can’t trust a man who disarms liberals with his seeming reasonability, and what you need instead is somebody who takes the fight to the left at every opportunity. This is an excellent description of the qualities required … <em style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; ">to be a good talk radio host</em>. But when applied to the presidential scene, it amounts to a kind of politics of schadenfreude, in which actual conservative accomplishments count for nothing, the ability to woo undecided voters is downgraded or dismissed, and all that matters is how much a prospective candidate irritates liberals.</span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>-- Ross Douthat</span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px; "><br /></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">Sarah Palin is one notable “political” figure (more on those scare quotes later) who shows up quite irregularly on this blog, especially given what some might note as her rather ubiquitous presence on the national scene. Along with Rush Limbaugh, she offers a certain kind of equilibrium to political discourse – namely, the braying of simplistic slogans meant to thrill the besotted and horrify the opposed. In this, she is quite successful. I long ago concluded that paying more than bemused attention to her drivel was serving little purpose other than driving up an already-high blood pressure, and seeing how both Palin and Limbaugh time and again offered nothing but minute variations on their copyrighted shtick, there seemed little reason to pay them any mind. Give me George Will, Robert Brooks, Ross Douthat, John Tierney, David Frum, Reihan Salam – I’ll digest and ponder whatever they have to say, no matter how much I may disagree with their worldview or conclusions. But considering the accruing tweets and bromides of the intellectual lightweight that is Sarah Palin is literally a waste of time – my time, your time, everybody’s time save media wonks and the Mama Grizzly set.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">This type of stance – refusing to acknowledge the existence of a divisive cultural figure who has proved incredibly important to millions of “ordinary” citizens – is often derided as elitism, perhaps even Elitism with a Capital E. But let’s not get confused here. I am in no way denying the existence, impact, or popularity of Wasilla’s greatest export. Nor will I blunder into the typical “I don’t know anybody who likes her” explain-away. Rather, I’ll grant Plain her place in the sun and simply note that if one approaches politics and a national stage as a one-dimensional figure – a caricature, and one set on endless loop at that – people should be forgiven for refusing to check back and peruse every latest outrage against the English language, common sense, or decency. Having seen one thirty-minute segment of the artistry that is Benny Hill, I’m fairly confident that I grasp his essence, and that by changing the channel or clicking away each time he appears, I’m in no danger of missing out on anything I haven’t seen before. Similarly, having visited more than my fair share of McDonald’s establishments, I can pass by any number of Big Mac franchises without worrying whether or not there’s something inside that might prove eye-opening. Hence my attitude towards Sarah Palin, a McPolitician of the Benny Hill stripe is ever there was one.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">However, even this “politician” designation is an injustice. For Sarah Palin is no more a politician than she is anything other than a celebrity. While she once chose the political path, and she may well choose it again, at the moment she serves no constituents, answers to no legislature, writes no laws, discloses no expenditures. Like members of the Royal Family and Paris Hilton, she is famous for being famous, and commands a national stage in which to bask in her famousness. Through the magic of social media, she remains at the epicenter of political discourse even though she currently wields no greater power than any other non-elected individual bending over their iPhone to complain about Washington. Yet with her book deals, reality TV gigs, costly speeches, and a popular Twitter account, one might be forgiven for confusing Palin with something other than an extremely opinionated celebrity. And perhaps she even is.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">Why else this long lead-in to an investigation of Palin if I’ve already laid out the many reasons why I do not pay attention to her? Even hermits get some whisperings of the outside world, and if I’m plugged into the media machine enough to know that Meredith Vieira is being replaced by Ann Curry, I’m plugged in enough to ingest a few dispatches from the land of Palin. Besides, the wonderful thing about our Alaskan entertainer is that one needn’t suffer through endless hours of interviews (she tends not to grant them), magazine profiles (she’s shut herself off from anything other than puff pieces), or even her TLC-based reality show (I don’t get TLC, and the show has thankfully not been renewed for a second season). Instead, one can go directly to the source and eavesdrop on her very-much-alive Twitter feed, in which daily nuggets stream forth to both the faithful and the curious. Twitter may be a very imperfect vehicle for the transmission of sophisticated thought – limited to 140 characters, messages must by necessity (unless one is some kind of poet and/or master compressor) be devoid of nuance, depth, insight, explanation, explication, and/or discussion. Which is why it works so well in transmitting the thoughts of Hollywood celebrities, hip-hop stars, and D-grade politicians. While most people might feel constrained by such limitations, Kim Kardashian and Ashton Kutcher<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>most likely do not. And while you or I might find ourselves at a loss to unfold the knotty details of any given political controversy in the same amount of space granted to a typical haiku, Sarah Palin suffers no such loss. Indeed, given that Twitter shines most when one is practicing self-celebration and/or barstool hectoring, one might suggest that Twitter remains the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of Palinian thought.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; ">Hence the following graded attempt to identify Sarah Plain’s springtime Tweets, which have unfolded with the natural regularity, if not the grace, of April petals. Follow along as these simple messages reveal not a politician, or even much of a wit, but nothing more or less than an Internet Troll – always divisive, never wrong, and certainly not anybody’s friend.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px; ">Guide To Grading :</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 21px; "><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">D<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A poor showing, suggesting little in the way of calculation and perhaps even a heartfelt opinion. No attempt to divide, will outrage or delight few. Keith Olbermann will not read it.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 21px; "><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">C<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Moderately successful, even a bit catty. Those attuned to Palin-code may nod in approval. Likely to coast below the radar of even the most attentive blogger. Might betray a hint of desperation, or simply a slow news day. Will not be mentioned by Keith Olbermann, although it might pop up in his inbox, forwarded by staff for consideration.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 21px; "><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">B<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Solid showing - mean-spirited and generally uncalled-for. Often deployed against defenseless or harmless targets. Arguably stems from a political belief, yet now shares little resemblance to anything echoing thought. Will annoy or delight, depending on audience. Keith Olbermann will probably reference it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt; "><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">A<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Extraordinary work – a fine-tuned slice of bile. Highlights the most absurd and simplistic position possible on a given topic and runs with it. Likely to be repeated in some misspelled fashion on sandwich board. Primary function is to initiate rage. Keith Olbermann may devote an entire segment to it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt; ">*****************************************************************</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt; ">The Tweets</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 16pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span">March 2</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt; "><b>Common sense & decency absent as wacko "church" allowed hate msgs spewed @ soldiers' funerals but we can't invoke God's name in public square</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Rather run-of-the-mill slam against Supreme Court decision allowing The Westboro Baptist Church to protest funerals and other events. Details are scarce, and Palin exempts herself from addressing issues of freedom of speech. Rather lazily references the absence of “common sense and decency,” which she neatly ties in with separation of church and state. Hopeless confusion of two very distinct issues. Subtle insistence on first-person plural personal pronoun “we” to describe those unfairly kept from shouting God’s name in public [as in, <i>“we can’t invoke God’s name in public square”</i>] excludes all who might not wish to proselytize, or perhaps just pretends non-believers don’t exist. Ultimately suggests two crimes are being committed, both involving freedom of speech and both making Jesus very sad.</span> </span><b style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: bold; "><span style="font-size:16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">C+<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"><b>March 8</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 21px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 21px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b>WaPo, you're </b></span></span></span></span></b></span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 21px; "><b>through. Have u no shame?</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; font-family: Times; font-size: 21px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b> </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>MT"@<a href="http://twitter.com/weeklystandard"><span style="color: rgb(24, 67, 140); ">weeklystandard</span></a>: WaPo Mocks 82-yr-old Natl Medal Arts Winner,Cancer Survivor</b></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><a href="http://bit.ly/dEgwzv" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(24, 67, 140); ">http://bit.ly/dEgwzv</span></a>"</span></span></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 21px; "> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Hopelessly obscure bromide against <i>Washington Post</i> blogger Alexandra Petri, who initiated a “caption this photo” contest for a snapshot of a very disheveled Donald Hall, noted New Hampshire poet, receiving a National Endowment of the Arts medal from President Obama. The photo is undeniably very odd, Petri’s contest just as undeniably unfunny. Exactly why Sarah Palin felt the need to weigh in on this matter, much less to announce the <i>Washington Post </i>was</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span">“through,” remains a mystery, although one notes Palin rarely skips any opportunity to lambast the press.</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span">Perhaps she holds a soft spot in her heart for Hall’s 1979 Caldecott winner</span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><i>Ox-Cart Man</i><span class="Apple-style-span">. </span><span class="Apple-style-span">Many of us do. Docked a notch for mostly consisting of a link to somebody else’s article.</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-weight: bold; "> </span><b style="font-family: Georgia; font-weight: bold; "><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">D+<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><b style="font-weight: bold; "><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt"><br /></span></b></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><b style="font-weight: bold; "><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">March 9</span></b></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><b style="font-weight: bold; "><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">We're $14,000,000,000,000+ in debt, yet rodeo clowns still want to fund the Cowboy Poetry Party.That must be 1 helluvahigh natl priority shindig</span></b></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">A return to form – nearly a textbook example of lashing out at a defenseless target. Perhaps to distance herself from accusations of going Commie by praising a no doubt left-aligned poet, Palin casts her gaze across our debt-besotted land and affixes clear blame to the Cowboy Poetry Festival, held each year in Northern Nevada. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">A simple Google search might enlighten the ignorant, but suffice to say Cowboy Poetry is as distinct and fully matured an indigenous art form as any other slice of regionalism on offer. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">Tying “rodeo clowns” to supporters of “cowboy poetry” is a nifty piece of work, though. M</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">ajor props for distancing herself from a form of national discourse in which participants must wear cowboy hats. And for dropping the mild epithet “helluva,” w</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); ">hich surely wouldn’t get the nod from the average evangelical pulpit.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'times new roman'; "> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; ">B+</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; "><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; ">March 26</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; ">So very sad, the passing of Geraldine Ferraro. God bless her family&friends;thank you for sharing this accomplished</span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; "> American with all of us.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 21px; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">Poor showing. Suggests a genuine emotion, perhaps even an idea with no political calculation. Uses the passing of a fellow female politician for nothing more nor less than a remembrance. Given the massive differences in political opinions between Ms. Ferraro and Ms. Palin, however, one might note that had Ms. Ferraro not spoke out sympathetically on Ms. Palin’s treatment by the press during the 2008 election. Attack the media, and you’re on Palin’s good side, even if you vocally support abortion. </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>D</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 21px; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 21px; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; ">April 8</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 21px; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">Appalling Commander in Chief action: Announce veto of troop funding in time of war. Troops sacrificing life & limb & he plays politics at . . . </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 21px; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 21px; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">. . . their expense. UNBELIVEABLE. Memo to the President: Insurgents won't stop & wait for govt shutdown to end before resuming actions</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Her outrage runneth over. Two tweets for the price of one, the better to outline the unconscionable actions of those who might politicize Department of Defense appropriations. One might plausibly note that by adding ludicrous strings to a stop-gap funding measure meant to continue funding troops in the wake of a government shutdown – by in effect <i>holding troops hostage</i> unless extortion fees to the tune of $624 billion in cuts are agreed to via H.R. 1363 – the party Palin claims fealty to had already lurched into the realm of sacrificing the troops. Such an acknowledgment might require an unprecedented third Tweet for the price of one. Lovely misspelling of “unbelievable” – it’s a tough one, isn’t it? And finely crafted warning of insurgents lying in wait regardless of government shutdown or not. Let's hope the President got the memo. Splendid effort.</span> </span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; "> </b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; ">B+</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; "><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; ">April 8</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; ">GOP: don't retreat! The country is going broke. We can't AFFORD cowboy poetry & subsidizing abortion.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span">Lame pro forma exercise. Possibly Tweeted from a prone position. Falls back on previous flogged horse – the horror that is Cowboy Poetry – while “roping in” (see? I can do it, too!) women’s health and reproductive rights under the catchall boogeyman term “abortion”. One might suggest the need to further elucidate the difference between funding and subsidizing abortion, although one supposes it makes little difference. Even somebody willing to acknowledge that abortion treads on shaky moral ground might balk at conflating it with the likes of Cowboy Poetry, or vice versa. Come on – what is it about Cowboy Poetry that so inflames our Wasilla warrior? Don’t they ride horses up in Ay-<i>lass</i>-ka, city girl?</span> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; ">C-<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; "><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; ">April 19</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 16pt; ">Paul Ryan reads Ayn Rand, he branded a terrorist. Obama starts his political career in a domestic terrorists house? No big deal.</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:18.0pt; font-family:Georgia;color:#444444"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:18.0pt; font-family:Georgia;color:#444444"><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23tcot" title="#tcot"><span style="color:#18438C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">#tcot</span></a></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Georgia; color:#444444"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Georgia;color:#444444"><span style="color: #18438C;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23p2" title="#p2">#p2</a></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; ">@diggrbiii</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">Stunning foray into mock outrage. Manages to hoist aloft two sacred cows in one Tweet – groveling at the foot of Ayn Rand in one breath, smearing Obama with the “terrorist” brush in the other. Even the oafish “he” instead of “he’s” suggests a breathless rush to fury – why break for proper pronunciation when things are <i>so deeply wrong</i>? If only these were her own words, and not a simple re-Tweet from another. Nice try.</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span"> <b>B-</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 21px; ">April 27</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-size: 21px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">Media: admit it, Trump forced the issue. Now, don't let the WH distract you w/the birth crt from what Bernanke says today. Stay focused, eh?</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span">A dazzling display of talent. First, lay into the media with your opening word, uttered in an almost casual just-you-and-me-baby kind of leer. Only the caress quickly becomes a noogie. “Admit it” – none of these spineless denials, media. Next, cozy up to Trump, fellow clown and poll bait, even though he hails from the PIG APPLE. Then: return to the media, only this time as a concerned friend, warning the confused rabbits not to let wily Obama to “distract” them. With what? His much-vaunted birth certificate, here rendered “crt,” as we all know of which we speak. Finally, goose ‘em with the dreaded Bernanke and a solemn plea to “stay focused”. The “eh” is a needless twist of the knife – to the right, decidedly to the right. So, hold on – what about this birth certificate?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px; "> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; ">A-<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; "><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-size: 16pt; ">May 4</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt; ">Show photo as warning to others seeking America's destruction. No pussy-footing around, no politicking, no drama;it's part of the mission.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">A splendid effort. Cuts directly to the chase, refers almost blithely to “the photo” – if you have to ask which one, why don’t you go ask your good friend Bill Ayers? Opens in strong declamatory mode – “<i>show photo as warning</i>” – dismissing any “who asked you?” queries through sheer firepower. Warning to who? “Others”. What kind of “others”? Those “seeking America’s destruction”. One notes that if Mutually Assured Destruction is no longer a compelling tactical or defensive guiding principal, Show Them The Photo is unlikely to replace it. From her comfortable position in whatever limousine she was riding in while putting fingers to mobile device, this resigned Governor of a National Park sneers “<i>No pussy-footing around”</i> [gender wars again?], “<i>no politicking” </i>[politician, heal thyself], <i>“no drama” </i>[but think of the rodeo clowns]. She closes with the finality of a gavel coming down on the expiring life of the guilty – <i>“It’s part of the mission</i>”. Whose mission, one might ask? And when did she get security clearance? The message could just as easily have been uttered by your drunken uncle sinking deep within his beanbag chair,and this is what I call a thing of beauty.</span> </span> <span style="font-size: 16pt; "><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A+<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-size: 16pt; "><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-size: 16pt; ">May 10</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span style="font-size: 16pt; ">Oh lovely, White House. . .</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; "><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/09/burn-a-bush-michelle-obama-invites-rapper-common-to-a-poetry-reading/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#18438C">http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/09/burn-a-bush-michelle-obama-invites-rapper-common-to-a-poetry-reading/</span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:18.0pt; font-family:Georgia;color:#444444"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p><span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">And here I thought we were showing such progress. Have we really retreated back to the pre-social media days of the 1990s, when hip-hop artists were routinely held up for scorn by the Moral Majority? Can our heroine do no better than Bill Clinton slamming Sister Souljah or Dan Quayle going after Ice-T? More to the point, at least back in the day, people were getting worked up over the Geto Boys’ “Let A Ho Be A Ho,” not my idea of a finely-turned phrase. But Common? As woman-friendly and gat-avoiding as any rapper of note? Let me guess – it was Common’s ode to Black Panther Assata Shakur in 2000’s <i>Like Water For Chocolate</i> that rubbed Sarah the wrong way. Only seems Palin’s wrath stems from Common’s off-hand call to “burn a Bush” for peace. While we both might agree such a fiery act would most likely <i>not</i> bring peace to da Middle East, if the outrage is a musician talking smack against George W. Bush, well, get ready to book Yo-Yo Ma. Even America’s other working-class musical tradition that celebrates substance abuse, violence, and firearms isn’t entirely free of those looking askance at Dubya (Dixie Chicks, most obviously). And I would note a third negative Tweet against rhymers. Our Sarah, a playa hater?</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16pt; "></span><span style="font-size: 16pt; ">B-<o:p></o:p></span><p></p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:18.0pt; font-family:Georgia;color:#444444"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></span></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-4963165024642692112011-05-02T15:28:00.000-07:002011-05-03T10:09:36.722-07:00The Protocols of Sheehan: A Dispatch From the Conspiracy FrontlinesWhen the news broke late Sunday night that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Osama</span> Bin Laden had been killed in his compound outside the Pakistani city of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Abbottabad</span>, my first thought wasn't to crack open a beer, pump my fist, or drive around the neighborhood honking the car horn, although it seems as if others acted on such impulses. There wasn't even the sense of relief, joy, or exultation that others have reported via social media tools, although I certainly didn't light any candles in mourning. A decade after the September atrocities, it proved difficult to channel the rage and horror of that day into a jubilant 420-character update on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Facebook</span>. As details were added to the breaking news, others continually added their thoughts, and while all were certainly heartfelt, I felt at times like a dispassionate observer watching an after-game celebration victory for a team I knew nothing about. <div><br /></div><div>This is not to suggest I've followed the advice of the religious leaders who have urged followers to remember the soul and humanity of any deceased being, or that I begrudge people for expressing their emotions upon news that is certainly welcome. It's just that the death of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Osama</span> Bin Laden - and his actions, philosophy, place in history, and influence - seems a very different thing from the Patriots being crushed in the Super Bowl or some loudmouth going down in the seventh round courtesy of Manny <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Pacquiao</span>. These sports metaphors are not chosen lightly - much of the news coverage featured on all forms of media have highlighted crowds of people chanting "USA! USA! USA!" in classic championship victory mode. To be sure, our "team" has scored a decisive, even surprising, victory. But the deaths in Manhattan and Washington in 2001, along with the two wars we've sustained since, have pushed any conception of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Osama</span> Bin Laden as an opponent beyond the realm of loss or victory. His entire pathetic earthly existence was a major loss to the human race.</div><div><br /></div><div>But there's no need to dwell on the comments and observations I've combed through over the past day, from paid columnists to regular folks with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">iPhones</span>, even though some offer surprising insights into the many facets of the ongoing War On Terror. I will skip over the numerous "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Osama</span> Bin Shot In" drops, the doggerel offered up by aspiring poets, the religious dogma mixed with references to burning hell fires, the swipes at Donald Trump. For while some are disturbed by images of jubilant people waving flags in celebration of the death of a terrorist, it's difficult to condemn the release of such honest feelings, even if I have no desire to join in. The passing of a tyrant always leads to celebration. Bin <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Laden's</span> acts slashed a deep scar across the American psyche, and even the most dispassionate of observers should find it difficult to deny some sense of closure, finality, justice - however incomplete, however simplistic. It's right to be wary of jingoism and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">bloodlust</span>. But it's also right to be wary of those who place the late Bin Laden on the same moral scale as themselves or others. In any case, my sense of justice and proper retribution wasn't challenged by Sunday's actions. Life is too short, and too cruel, and tyrants abound.</div><div><br /></div><div>Far more fascinating are the opinions of those occupying the opposite spectrum of Team USA cheerleaders - the conspiracy theorists who have parlayed their skepticism of authority and an eye for political spin into the dizzying web of lies that is the bread and butter of all those who seek An Answer to the evils and abuses of the world. Lately, the conspiracy tent has been dominated by the shrill voices of those who would question our current president's place of birth - a movement dominated not by the rational types of various political backgrounds who have raised legitimate concerns over the Obama administration's lack of transparency, but by those who truly believe Barack Hussein Obama to be an African-born, Indonesian-raised, Muslim non-American. The implications of such charges are worthy of a separate column. There's much to be said on the question of whether the entire <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Birther</span> movement owes its mainstream success to racist suppositions of who is or is not a "true" American, just as much could be said about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Obama's</span> less-than-forthcoming behavior and the complicity of the press in offering up a half-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">assed</span> vetting of the candidate during the last presidential election. But while there is little doubt voices on the right will soon apply the lessons of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Birthers</span> to this latest score in the War On Terror, it's the left-leaning remnants of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Truthers</span> who have so far taken the lead in questioning the official line on the death of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Osama</span> Bin Laden.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Truthers</span>, one must recall, coalesced around widespread concerns that key details of 9/11 were being ignored, glossed over, manipulated, or denied. Few of my acquaintances were pleased by or satisfied with the official findings of the 9/11 Commission, myself included, although I don't recall anybody seriously claiming any great conspiracy was underfoot, save for a friend beholden to the thoughts of David <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Ickes</span> and his reptilian bloodline meta-theory. When the first traces of graffiti declaring 9/11 to be an inside job began making their mark on the streets of Albany and later San Diego, I greeted them with the sneering contempt I thought they deserved. The rumors linking George W. Bush to the attacks - as either mastermind or witting accomplice - were beneath the discourse of rational beings. The anti-Semitic undertones to the fevered scribblings of "Big Picture" theorists seemed obvious to anybody capable of nuance. When I had the misfortune to share a three-hour train ride from Los Angeles to San Diego with a rather messianic <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Truther</span>, my disdain for the movement became complete. Surprised to discover somebody both tangentially involved with the military and relatively unsympathetic to the Iraqi incursion, she blathered on about Building 7 and iron-rich spheres, Israel and NORAD stand-down orders, Operation <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Northwoods</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Pax</span> Americana. By the time she insistently pushed burned DVD-ROMS of speeches by David Ray Griffin and performances by the Dixie Chicks into my hands (I warned her it was very unlikely I'd get around to watching either), I had long since concluded anybody even slightly sympathetic with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Truther</span> cause was not one I wished to share close quarters with. In point of fact, I'd taken my stance about the time she related to me, lip quivering and tears oozing from her eyes, that she'd "successfully channelled" the life spirit of an Iraqi schoolgirl during a sit-in protest at an Orange County mall.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was unaware until recently that one prominent leftist keeping alive the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Truther</span> bonfire was Cindy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Sheehan</span>, the mother of fallen soldier <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Casey</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Sheehan</span> and a prominent critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Sheehan's</span> presence in the anti-war movement was undeniable and, at times, even inspiring, making concrete the grief and concern many had for the reckless actions propelling forward our presence in the Middle East and serving as a welcome counterweight to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">gung</span>-ho image of the military and their families favored by many who cheered on the offensive while never once considering making a sacrifice more demanding than waving a flag during community parades. When David Letterman slammed guest Bill <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">O'Reilly</span> for his attacks on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_29">Sheehan</span>, the liberal community could be sensed nodding as one - how dare anyone be callow enough to impugn cries for peace by a grieving mother?</div><div><br /></div><div>I nodded along, and still hold that Letterman the stealth-liberal does us much good. And yet, several years removed, it's difficult not to agree slightly with the odious Mr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_30">O'Reilly</span> that Cindy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_31">Sheehan</span> is, among other things but perhaps foremost, a colossal ignoramus of the highest order - a cartoon rendering of leftist sympathies, an overbearing and hackneyed town crier dedicated to any issue so long as they chip away at the edges of weakly-defined hegemony, and a hectoring enabler to the weakest impulses of the progressive cause to which I am such a proud contributing member. Right, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_32">Sheehan</span> and I may fight the same sort of fight. But it's hardly traitorous to reject outright paranoia, or conclude any movement would be better off without lightweights carrying bullhorns.</div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps you'd thought Cindy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_33">Sheehan</span> had shuffled offstage to undertake some other form of public therapy. Perhaps, like me, you'd hoped she found some kind of peace or closure for the senseless death of her son. Perhaps you'd simply forgotten about her. But a fortuitous link led me to the temple of irrationality that is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_34">Sheehan's</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_35">Facebook</span> page, an enterprise that has attracted nearly 5,000 "friends," surprisingly few of whom are mockers or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_36">contrarians</span>. Blessed with a piercing artistic rendering by Rob <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_37">Shetterly</span>, whose <i>Americans Who Tell The Truth</i> series is much-admired in this house, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_38">Sheehan's</span> profile showcases the expected Thoreau quotations and links to Israel <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_39">Kamakawiwo'ol</span> album tracks, along with daily updates of a feisty nature from a truth-speaker.</div><div><br /></div><div>And what truth might one glean from befriending Cindy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_40">Sheehan</span>? Most recently, one might peer into the smoky logic extending from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_41">Trutherism</span> into what has been clumsily dubbed "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_42">Deatherism</span>" - namely, that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_43">Osama</span> Bin Laden was decidedly not killed in a firefight in Pakistan nor buried at sea, but has either already been killed or remains on the loose, and has been inserted as a pawn into a game controlled by the steady hands of.....well, insert stock villain here, but if they are Jewish and perhaps embedded within the media you'll collect at least Marvin Gardens and perhaps even score Free Parking. Three posts from <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_44">Sheehan</span> regarding the death of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_45">Osama</span> Bin Laden leave little confusion of her stance on the issue - one doesn't kick off festivities by declaring "if you believe the newest death of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_46">OBL</span>, you are stupid" if you haven't already declared war on nuance, and one doesn't routinely fall back on the colloquialism "Duh-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_47">merican</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_48">sheeple</span>" to describe anybody who disagrees with your prophecies if one is opening the door to a wider debate. To glance through <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_49">Sheehan's</span> brief thoughts and the many comments of her acolytes is to glance unhindered into the inky black depths of grape <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_50">kool</span>-aid thought - <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_51">kool</span>-aid tendencies that can easily stain any earnest individual open-minded enough to periodically lose track of their brains.</div><div><br /></div><div>The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_52">kool</span>-aid analogy is consciously chosen - it's the preferred metaphor within the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_53">Truther</span> crowd. To offer any sort of push back to even the most outlandish claims of global <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_54">conspiracy</span> - to even raise the possibility that worshiping at the altar of conspiracy introduces as many complicated objections as any worship at any altar - is to steady oneself against the accusation of playing the lead role of Jim Jones in the Guyana pageant that is American consciousness. One foolishly thoughtful individual suggested as much when he dared to venture his opinion that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_55">Sheehan's</span> mission had shifted over the past few years and that he was uncomfortable with the dictum that "Jews cause all the problems". The response was swift - (and I do quote, typos and all, seeing how misspellings are one unifying factor among Internet cranks, and please note the only word chosen for proper capitalization out of a possible four) "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_56">ok</span> so got watch <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_57">cnn</span> more exciting there I am sure". </div><div><br /></div><div>Spend a few painful minutes perusing the fever dreams of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_58">Sheehan</span> and her acolytes, and one will go away with far greater insights than simply the ease with which one may dispatch Doubting <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_59">Thomases</span> as "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_60">fuckwads</span>" (a favorite epithet of the thesaurus-deprived matron). One will correctly begin to view the supposed violent death of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_61">Osama</span> Bin Laden as yet another etching in the grand art project that is the "Lying Murderous Empire"- a fabrication swallowed whole by the "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_62">sheeple</span>" as easily as they swallowed the 1969 moon landing and the hijacking of American Airlines Flight 77. One reads of the many lies of DNA testing, of World Trade Center steel shanghaied to China, of machinations to target Syria for annihilation, of Al <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_63">Qaeda</span> in Venezuela, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_64">Facebook</span> clandestinely seizing user-uploaded activist photographs of the Vigil For The Wood Carver. One paws through claims of American assassins blowing up <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_65">Benazir</span> Bhutto, knowing references to George <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_66">Soros</span> and the House of Rothschild, and attacks against Army wives. One wide-eyed commenter opens and closes every post with a full caps FOR THE LOVE OF WAR tag. Another compares Bin Laden to nuclear power, while another suggests details don't matter as we're all fated to die from breathing in carbon fuel.. Yet another continually references The Matrix. I counted several involved explanations of how this "obvious" hoax was purposefully designed to be clumsy and easily uncovered, thus blinding many to other, more sinister and more expertly assembled, hoaxes - a conspiracy conspiracy, if you will. Several confuse or mistype "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_67">Osama</span>" and "Obama". Others simply kiss the feet of their appointed idol - "You are a voice of sanity in these <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_68">end times</span>" -- "I love you Cindy!!!!!" -- "My favorite thing about Cindy is how each day she gives us more reasons to love her!"</div><div><br /></div><div>Since we're trafficking in rabid overstatement here, can I just point out that what springs to my mind when reading the last three encomiums is the hero worship accorded to the likes of Kim <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_69">Jong</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_70">Il</span>? If you think my analogy too heavy handed, why not point out that the very title of this blog essay alludes to the most notorious example of fraudulent text impacting global hatred and even genocide. This analogy was not chosen lightly. Part and parcel of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_71">Truther</span> movement - and thus part and parcel of Cindy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_72">Sheehan</span> and her many followers - is a covert and at times overt anti-Semitic narrative that poisons all it touches. Investigate into any manner of conspiracy theory, and anti-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_73">Semitism</span> will likely soon rear its ugly head. This is no identity politics claim or Zionist assumption. Suspicion of Jewish control is central to nearly any coherent theory of global conspiracy, and its toxicity blankets as many figures on the hard left as it does the hard right. I've always suspected that conspiracy theories serve as a corrective to those bemoaning the loss of the orderly hand of the almighty - that those fallen from faith find a chilling solace in assigning the chaos of the world to unseen hands, a malign rather than benign presence, but a defined presence nonetheless. It's an understandable impulse. How much easier is it to accept cruelty and abuse when one knows it springs from the hands of an individual rather than the empty whirl of chance? What are conspiracy theorists but the ultimate believers?</div><div><br /></div><div>So take a peek at the below highlighted examples of discourse from the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_74">Sheehan</span> flock. When all is said and done, they've certainly imperiled less lives than either Bin Laden or the Military Industrial Complex. But declaring their flailing antics harmless is to suggest you reject logic itself as one of our many available weapons of peace.</div><div><br /></div><div>***********************************************************************************</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Discussion Thread #1 : Reasonable Doubt Concerning Reported Death</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_75">Sheehan</span> : </b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: black; "><b>I am sorry, but if you believe the newest death of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_76">OBL</span>, you're stupid. Just think to yourself--they paraded Saddam's dead sons around to prove they were dead--why do you suppose they hastily buried this version of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_77">OBL</span> at sea? This lying, murderous Empire can only exist with your brainwashed consent--just put your flags away and THINK!</b></span></div><div><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:black"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><b><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_78">Sheehan</span></b><b style="font-weight: normal; "> : </b><b>b</b><b><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_79">ut</span> since I don't believe it, I am "bitter".</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div>Sadly, plenty of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_80">sheeple</span> are swallowing this. My <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_81">realtime</span> friends all think I'm mad. 3 even told me to watch the news....</div><div><br /></div><div><b><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_82">Sheehan</span>: where did they get <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_83">OBL's</span> DNA to prove it in the first place? Do they have a database of terrorist DNA?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it!</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_84">Osama</span> had died or been killed 3 times already......confirmed by the CIA and FBI each time!</div><div><br /></div><div>Such common sense, Cindy.......and my thought is that surely another country would have taken care of his body if they had been aware....</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">I am speechless how the people after what we have been through are not critically thinking and swallowing this obvious Propaganda without a question. so sad what has been done to weaken the minds of the people that they open their arms to Fascist Totalitarianism <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_85">amd</span> embrace it. The sickness of Authoritarianism...do not question authority, believe, with blind faith.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">American philosophy is still a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_86">testesteron</span> filled game cock attitude.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333">Who has the most to gain from the actions and distractions of the past years? The events of September 11<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_87">th</span>, the destruction of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, attack on civil liberties, implementation of a Police State, Disaster <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_88">Capitalis</span></span></span><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333">m, etc? Who has the most to gain, and who, in fact, has undoubtedly done so, but the military/industrial complex?? Who has the most to gain from this policy of "endless war" but the military industrial complex?</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Exactly. People are fucking morons who will swallow just about anything. So gullible.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">let us watch and listen closely to the upcoming events and what exactly was the mechanics and strategy of this fake raid and killing of Obama, just at this time. You know it's big.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Cindy, when are going you back on Alex Jones? You can compare evidence. [<i>note: self-described "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_89">paleoconservative</span>" radio talk show host, conspiracy theorist, filmmaker</i>]</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><b><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_90">Sheehan</span> : Thanks - I guess you believe the lies? How's your flag doing?</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Two letters of what I think about all of this - BS! It's just a PR stunt to get people ralied up for the pig push on Libya.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">using CRITICAL thinking...it is horrifying the blind faith in the Gov controlled media and our nefarious leadership. So sad that these people are conditioned to believe anything the so-called "Authorities" feed them. Dangerous as well. Welcome to Fascism.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">Ι love you, Cindy!!!!!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">I question that also Cindy, it could b part of the DECEPTION, WHO WILL BELIEVE THE LIE. There is a election coming up and they r trying 2 get there ducks n a row.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b>Sheehan : <span class="Apple-style-span" >they can swallow the bs story because Obama gave it to them - never would have believe the same story from Bush - that's why OBL didn't die again when Bush was prez. divide and distract.</span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">OK so the entire political and media structure is pulling the society by the nose to look at a single dead man (who has probably been dead for 10 years)... so now what are they gearing up to do? More war as Alex Jones says? These efforts don't get wasted on simply "informing" the dumbed down masses. There is a real social engineering goal behind all this.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333">Cindy, I guess we will never get Osama's body. According to this CNN story, he was buried at sea even though the sea was 1000 miles from the killing.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333"> </span></span> <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333">Amazing! And people are sucking this shit up like it is true. Hello, ever watch a cop sho</span></span><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333">w? You need a body to declare a homicide first.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-converted-space"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333">Remember the three Kenndy's limo into the sea and sent the steel of the World Trade Center to China?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><b>Sheehan : </b>[<i>note: lengthy unanswered exchange with no particular direction follows] </i></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">I don't even know what the fuck Alex Jones is saying, Lawrence--if you notice, I don't even go on his show anymore and haven't for years. I guess I am not capable of having my own thoughts. I must be listening to Alex Jones.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small; "><b><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><b>Sheehan : </b></span></span></b><b><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">Some men are so arrogant--if I have a thought that is against someone who is on the right--Michael Moore is telling me what to say--if I have a thought that is contrary to what someone on the left is saying, then Alex Jones is telling me what to say.</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small; "><b><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal; "><b><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><b>Sheehan : Fuckwads</b></span></span></b></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoBodyText" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="apple-style-span">Sheehan : It's good that I have Alex Jones and Michael Moore, because then I don't have to think--I can just tune into them and regurgitate their propaganda. It's hard to think--it gives me a headache.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText"><span class="apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; ">Sheehan : </span><b>It's also easier just to swallow the lies of the Empire like Monica Lewinsky swallowed Clinton's sperm. It works for me.</b></p><p class="MsoBodyText"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">People right now is the time to beware of falseflag terrorism because after Libya the neocons and thier partners in crime Obama admin have Syria and Iran in thier sites. OBL's socalled death is not only a BS impression but it is a tactical trick to provoke 'terrorist' (falseflag) acts to convince public to target Syria!<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333">The matrix for real! Don't believe the hype!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333">They didn't have to kill him-they could of knocked everyone out with gas or dart guns for that matter-it's all a big LIE! That's all we've been getting for years now. Seems like a LIE to set us up for the NEXT False attack from whatever are</span></span><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333">a they want to invade next! Pakistan? Iran? Saudi Arabia? Really no one is safe from the Empire, especially if you're sitting remotely close to the world's last remaining oil reserves. Who knows? Maybe Al Qaeda all moved to Venezuela...<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";color:#333333;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Just like 911 they got rid of the evidence.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="textexposedshow"><span class="apple-style-span"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333">FOR THE LOVE OF WAR It is the tradition of Navy Seal Team Six to intern their commandos at sea. Just because he was the target for this operation dose not take away the fact that he fought side by side with with Seal Team Six against the Russians. FOR THE LOVE OF WAR.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333">There is a video of Forest Gump shaking hands with JFK.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 8.5pt;color:#333333">The beauty of making his death look suspicious is that it maintains the pretext of imperial violence by creating enough conspiracy theorists to waste time on conspiracy theories. Rome didn't use conspiracy, the English or Spanish empires d</span></span><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333">idn't use them. And neither do we. What we have is an empire and a massive monopoly of state violence. And Bin Laden or any other pretext is nothing more than a marketing ploy. It wouldn't matter if they killed him, and it doesn't matter if he's alive. What does matter is not wasting time focusing on the details of endlessly doubting via conspiratorial discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333">***********************************************************************************</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333"><b>Discussion Thread #2 : One Death Does Not Disrupt A Larger Movement</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333"><b>Sheehan: </b></span></span><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:black">I am going to go take a walk in the wonderful sunshine--now that OBL is dead, I feel safe and the birds are singing and the nuclear disaster is over; our oceans are clean and wars have ended. This is the Dawning of The Age of Aquarius. Let the Sunshine! (We can use our plastic sheeting and duct tape now for painting our kitchens). I know! LET'S GO SHOPPING!!!</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: black; ">can't go shopping....might miss Dancing with the Douchebags.....</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: black; ">Right on.....it's kabuki theater</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: black; ">i spent all my money on flags</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><b>Sheehan : </b></span><b>we live in a fucking ridiculous era.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">Loool...Miss Cindy plz keep these status updates coming...You are a voice of sanity in these endtimes....May God bless you.Thank u for speaking the truth like it is.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; "></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">FB took all my photos of Big Mountain, Vigil for the Wood Carver shot by cop, Women In Black Vigils - all my most important activist photos are gone. Don't trust FB anyway, but people are protesting in UK about FB wiping out activist work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; "></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">oh the military wives will love that!!! muahaaaa...slaughter=payday=SHOPPING at the mall!!! Muahaaaa </span></span>Oh look kids!! Daddy killed some bad guys grandchildren and now he will get paid and we can go SHOPPING!!!! yippeee!!!</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">My favorite thing about Cindy is how each day she gives us more reasons to love her!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; "></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">Brilliant status post Cindy! I got some good belly laughs out of it ....thanks!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-family: Tahoma; "></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">News stories are scatted in time. Some say he's been dead for 10 yrs now, others say it was just days. But the Buishes and OBL were BOTH heavily invested in OPEC. In reality no matter what they say, burning fossil-fuels is going to kill us all. Whether it be from just breathing engine exhaust or from from wars over religion, our demise is going to be because of the money that fossil-fuels create.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">****************************************************************************************************************</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; "><b>Discussion Thread #3 : Unfair Application of Labels and The Demise of Journalism</b></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; "><b>Sheehan: </b></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal; "><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:black">I guess I am a deather--and now the "news" is getting their "news" items from Facebook, because this is the only place I have ever said anything about this newest fraud perpetrated on the gullible Duh-merican sheeple.</span></b></span></b></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 11px; "><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: black; "></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText2"><span class="apple-style-span">bin Laden not wanted for WTC because Israel did it.<b style="font-weight: normal; "><o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText2"><span class="apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">I underestimated the stupidity, denial, and delusional potential of duh-mericans!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">Back a few years ago your cause was admirable and sane, and I joined you. Now, you are all a big bore. Right, Osama has been dead. Right, the Jews cause all the problems. Sounds familiar somehow....<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">ok so got watch cnn<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>more exciting there I am sure<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">Osama bin Laden and Obama bin Lyin; the only difference between these terrorists is the number of innocent people killed. The winner by a country mile is, of course, Obama.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"></span></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText"><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; "><b>Sheehan: </b></span></b><o:p></o:p></span><b>I never said he wasn't dead--I never said he was ever alive. I just know he wasn't killed and buried at sea yesterday, cuz I wasn't born yesteray.</b></p><p class="MsoBodyText"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">we have a bingo</span></span></p><p class="MsoBodyText"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">BOB tell cindy what she has won. Well Cindy you win the immortal collection of Osama's top ten videos of around the CIA camp I mean the world and his audio collection of all his classic poems. Congrats<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-weight: normal; "><b>Sheehan: </b></span></b></span></span></span><b><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">Hey mother f%#kers--print this!</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); ">usa had a hand with Benazir Bhutto's assasination also.. cuz they want to perpetuate the myth, the bogey man called "Osama been lyin".... to suit whatever purposes they want, whether it be fear mongering, or to justify their bogus "War on Terror", one of the biggest hoax in history.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt;font-family:Tahoma;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#333333; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Osama bin Convenient...</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt; font-family: Tahoma; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 8.5pt;font-family:Tahoma;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#333333; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">Does anybody else suspect that the dinosaur media is putting the final nails in thier coffin by perpetuating this hoax?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">its a duh mockery, not democracy.</span></span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><br /><span class="apple-style-span">8 years after may 1st 2003 : mission accomplished banner : is not a coincidence. the system really really wants to remove may day as a holiday.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><span class="apple-style-span"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333">yes, definitely a Soros and Rothschild connection. one can do a research...<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 8.5pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoBodyText"><span class="apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; "><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoBodyText"><span class="apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small; "><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Tahoma; font-size: small; "><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p></p><p></p></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="font-size:8.5pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Tahoma;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-74304657885661748062011-04-15T10:23:00.000-07:002011-04-15T11:38:27.437-07:005 Inspirational Exchanges To Thrill The Electorate: Or, We're Binging On Some Kind of Crazy When Ann Coulter Is The Voice of Reason<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16CGs4F0nbBxuXLUuqb6as05vROFuzrN4JeYpbds50qvqGjW_1abpQrec71D2WBrum21AdltKjRK12IS5kZI8JuF-G8GaqcMdEjNP3VERuLEO8PFhdLuOHMNSlTSVe9BfUjhQcLYtmKs/s1600/rncclowns.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi16CGs4F0nbBxuXLUuqb6as05vROFuzrN4JeYpbds50qvqGjW_1abpQrec71D2WBrum21AdltKjRK12IS5kZI8JuF-G8GaqcMdEjNP3VERuLEO8PFhdLuOHMNSlTSVe9BfUjhQcLYtmKs/s400/rncclowns.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5595863608951667298" /></a><br /><div>The Big Top festivities that take place in the citywide Ringling Brothers event that is Washington, D.C. has long been populated by clowns of any and all political stripes, from the reactionary right to the bleeding-heart liberal, with all manner of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">conmen</span>, poseurs, frauds, imbeciles, and the uninformed filling up the wide middle. But the particular clown car I'm thinking of today - filled to bone-crushing capacity and eager to spill out over the airwaves and state fairs of our great land - is at the moment a strikingly partisan vehicle, made up solely of the hucksters and hacks who will soon vie for an attempt to unseat the current president and restore sanity (fiscal and otherwise) to the sagging republic. The early moments of political campaigns are always chock full of eccentrics and also-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">rans</span>-before-they-ran. But the lineup offered so far by the noble Party of Lincoln gives every indication that this presidential race is going to get much worse before it gets better, and that it may not even get better at all.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some fellow political junkies welcome the sad spectacle of the likes of Donald Trump and Michele <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Bachmann</span> jockeying for position in the Footrace of Idiots that inevitably leads to the White House. As Trump courts the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">birther</span> industry and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Bachmann</span> blabs on into the ether, these progressives see the doom of Republican hopes in 2012 and an easy reelection for a president they may be somewhat disappointed in yet have not once considered voting against. It's easy to see their point. But you'd have to be some kind of nihilist to wish Trump or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Bachmann</span> to get within even forty percentage points of the presidency, and I'd argue you'd even be a nihilist if you welcomed them into the race. Obnoxious frauds like Trump and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Bachmann</span> serve no purpose other than poisoning the well, delivering the toxic sludge of their opinions into the public record and rendering useless huge swaths of American discourse as surely as if they were aging nuclear reactors on slow leak.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hold out hope that moderate voters of all political persuasions unite to institute a blockade against our supposed <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">front-runners</span>, allowing for a conservative race that might resemble something other than deluded kindergarten bullies shouting to be heard over the recess bell. How about Mitch Daniels? Can't say I'd vote for him - can't say we agree on many things other than our shared commitment to civility in discourse. But Daniels would bring with him experience as a governor, which means experience in compromise (are you listening, Scott Walker?) and budgetary matters. Daniels would offer philosophical differences with the current president, not question his place of birth or whether Bill Ayers penned his autobiography. He could very likely diagram a sentence concerning entitlement programs without using <i>socialism </i>as the noun.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some progressives fear Daniels more than they fear Sarah <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Palin</span>, as they suspect the genial Midwesterner has a greater shot at the nomination and the presidency than the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Wasilla</span> shill. And no doubt as the race progressed, I'd find myself edging farther and farther away from the Daniels brand and closer to my own preferred candidate as the rhetorical heat increased. But it's no betrayal to the cause to wish for an honorable adversary, to believe that debates are enhanced when honorable individuals take up opposing viewpoints, or that the country would be better off in the hands of an imperfect conservative than it would be if the likes of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Palin</span> or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Santorum</span> even made it onto the ballot.</div><div><br /></div><div>Having made this hopeful endorsement for somebody along the lines of Mitch Daniels to climb aboard, it might be best to consider the five clowns currently generating buzz in the fetal stages of the 2012 presidential race. Rather than offer much in the way of commentary, I've decided it would be easiest to simply dole out enough rope and step out of the way. Only a few ground rules were set in place before I tracked down these five individual quotations / exchanges that serve as an encapsulation of front-runner ideology. Sarah <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Palin</span> was ineligible for inclusion, as she seems content to remain on the sidelines for the time being. Candidates were limited to a single example, so as to keep Donald Trump from unfair advantage. Statements are limited to those made in the last few months, to both reflect current positions and to acknowledge the savvy recent move by Newt Gingrich to delete every Twitter update he composed prior to July 22, 2010. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>MOST BIZARRE AND DISINGENUOUS ATTEMPT BY SECULAR BILLIONAIRE TO COURT THE CHRISTIAN VOTE - DONALD TRUMP</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">Trump: Well I get sent Bibles by a lot of people.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">David Brody: Where are all those Bibles?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Trump: Actually, we keep them at a certain place. A very nice place. But people send me Bibles. And you know it's very interesting. I get so much mail and because I'm in this incredible location in Manhattan you can't keep most of the mail you get.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">There's no way I would ever throw anything, to do anything negative to a Bible, so what we do is we keep all of the Bibles.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I would have a fear of doing something other than very positive so actually I store them and keep them and sometimes give them away to other people but I do get sent a lot of Bibles and I like that. I think that's great.</p><p class="MsoNormal">- <i>Interview with David Brody for 'The Brody File,' Christian Broadcasting Network, April 11, 2011</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>MOST FOLKSY ADMITTANCE TO WISHING VIOLENT FASCIST ENFORCEMENT OF RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA - MIKE <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">HUCKABEE</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">I almost wish that there would be a simultaneous telecast and all Americans would be forced, at gunpoint, to listen to every David Barton message.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">- <i>speech given at 'Rediscover God in America</i>' <i>conference, March 24, 2011. David Barton is an evangelical revisionist historian and Christian Nationalist who promotes the institution of biblical law</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><b>BEST PAWNING OFF OF SEXUAL MISDEEDS ON A RIGOROUS CONGRESSIONAL SCHEDULE BY A THRICE-MARRIED ADULTERER - NEWT GINGRICH</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate. And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them.</p><p class="MsoNormal">[I] felt compelled to seek God's forgiveness. Not God's understanding, but God's forgiveness.</p><p class="MsoNormal">- <i>interview with Christian Broadcast Network prior to appearance at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Des <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Moines</span>, Iowa, March 7, 2011</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>MOST IMPRESSIVE FAMILIARITY WITH THE BROAD SWEEP OF HUMAN HISTORY AND HOW IT RELATES TO MEN HUGGING AND KISSING EACH OTHER - MICHELE <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">BACHMANN</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">In 5,000 years of recorded human history ... neither in the East or in the West ... has any society ever defined marriage as anything other than between men and women. Not one in 5,000 years of recorded human history. That's an astounding fact and it isn't until the last 12 years or so that we have seen for the first time in recorded human history marriage defined as anything other than between men and between women.</p><p class="MsoNormal">- <i>statement given during speech at Iowa Family Leader Presidential Lecture Series, March 7, 2011</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><br /></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>MOST UNIQUE <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">MICROECONOMIC</span> THEORY AND PROPOSAL TO ENSURE THE LONG-TERM HEALTH OF SOCIAL SECURITY - RICK <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">SANTORUM</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">The reason Social Security is in big trouble is we don't have enough workers to support the retirees. Well, a third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion, because one in three pregnancies end in abortion.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">- <i>interview with New Hampshire radio station <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">WEZS</span>, March 29, 2011</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "> </span><b><b><b> </b></b></b></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p style="font-weight: bold; "></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p style="font-weight: bold; "></p><p></p><p style="margin-top: 12pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 12pt; font-weight: bold; "><o:p></o:p></p><p></p><p></p></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-36653518888866765562011-03-20T15:38:00.001-07:002011-03-21T08:43:46.626-07:00Thirteen Statements That Have Some Bearing On Our Third Concurrent War In The Middle East<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEvnkOO3lKgl0PnIvN2Tub-BYztxRx-AJFYoQSLa9uAC4SSQr9ofkknnlP2yJcmiPBGMDaIMHYei78LkGi3mhLAhqoRMJ6BuZFxFtDPzQ1NzoJGc2AJ43D8tjUihdXcKoZCq84tf7n9hU/s1600/zzzzzzcaspar.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEvnkOO3lKgl0PnIvN2Tub-BYztxRx-AJFYoQSLa9uAC4SSQr9ofkknnlP2yJcmiPBGMDaIMHYei78LkGi3mhLAhqoRMJ6BuZFxFtDPzQ1NzoJGc2AJ43D8tjUihdXcKoZCq84tf7n9hU/s400/zzzzzzcaspar.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5586295364582453842" /></a>[above image: Caspar <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Weinberger</span> points to a map of Libya, 1986]<div><br /></div><div>1. <b>Many noble Arabs have perished in the cause of Arab freedom at the hands of those alien rulers, the Turks, who oppressed them. It is the determination of the government of Great Britain and the great powers allied to Great Britain that these noble Arabs shall not have suffered in vain. It is the hope and desire of the British people and the nations in alliance with them that the Arab race may rise once more to greatness and renown among the peoples of the earth, and that it shall bind itself together to this end in unity and concord.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>- Lieutenant General Sir Stanley Maude, from <i>The Proclamation of Baghdad</i>, <a href="http://harpers.org/archive/2003/05/0079593">issued</a> eight days after British forces entered and captured the city of Baghdad, March 19, 1917</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>2. <b><span class="apple-style-span">The people of the U.S. bear Libya and its people no enmity or hatred.</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:#333333"> </span>However, Colonel Qaddafi is your head of state. So long as Libyans obey his orders, then they must accept the consequences. Colonel Qaddafi is your tragic burden.</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:#333333"> </span>The Libyan people are responsible for Colonel Qaddafi and his actions. If you permit Colonel Qaddafi to continue with the present conflict, then you must also share some collective responsibility for his actions.</span></b></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span">- Voice of America Broadcast, April 14, 1986</span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span">3. <b>I think circumstances will drive where this goes in the future. I wouldn't speculate in terms of length at this particular point in time.</b></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span">- Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on ABC's <i>This Week</i> speaking to Christine <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Amanpour</span> on whether or not Colonel Qaddafi might remain in office (a la Saddam Hussein and the Iraq no-fly zone) following NATO military action, March 20, 2011</span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="apple-style-span">4. </span><b>One thing is clear: there is no military solution to the problems in Bahrain. A political solution is necessary and all sides must now work to produce a dialogue that addresses the needs of all of Bahrain's citizens.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>- White House spokesman Tommy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Vietor</span>, on whether or not the United States would intervene as atrocities against civilians mount at the hands of government forces in Bahrain, March 15, 2011</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>5. <b>There is no state whose leader does not wish to secure permanent peace by conquering all the universe.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>- Immanuel Kant, 1795</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>6. <b>In the [Berlin] disco, it was very clear that Libya had trained and paid for and was supporting the terrorists who conducted that activity. Americans were killed, and others were killed, and with that proof we <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">didn</span>’t hesitate for a moment. We had a very massive retaliation. We had, for that time, a very big operation—50, 60 planes in the air—and we did very considerable amount of damage in Libya, in effect putting them off the map for a long time. There were a lot of stories that we’d gone after <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Gaddafi</span> and bombed his home and all that. Well, he <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">didn</span>’t have homes, he had tents. And he had suddenly discovered or adopted some child that was hurt. He said we killed his daughter or something. Up to that time there’d been no evidence whatever that he had any family or any children. We did what we had to do, when we had proof of who had done it. It was very effective, and it did put him off. He then spent the next couple of years just trying to survive. It bred in him a demand for revenge and fury and all that.</b></div><div><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;font-family:Georgia;color:#222222"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;">- </span><span class="Apple-style-span" >Caspar <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Weinberger</span>, Secretary of Defense (1981-1987), <a href="http://millercenter.org/newsroom/news/reagan-libya">looking back</a> on Qaddafi-Reagan relations in the mid-1980s</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >7. </span></span><b><span class="apple-style-span">A Tomahawk Missile cost $569,000 in FY99, so if my calculations are correct, they cost a little over</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial; color:#222222"> </span>$736,000 today assuming they are the same make and model. The United States fired 110 missiles yesterday, which adds up to a cost of around $81 million. That's twice the size of the annual budget of USIP, which the House of Representatives wants to de-fund, and is about 33</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial; color:#222222"> </span>times the amount of money National Public Radio receives in grants each year from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which the House of Representatives also wants to de-fund in the name of austerity measures.</span></b></div><div><b><span class="apple-style-span"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="apple-style-span">- <a href="http://www.cnas.org/node/737">Andrew M. Exum</a>, Fellow with The Center For A New American Security, <a href="http://www.cnas.org/blogs/abumuqawama/2011/03/fun-fact-day-your-tax-dollars-work.html">posted</a> March 20, 2011</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >8. <b>What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians.</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" ><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >- <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Amr</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Moussa</span>, former Chairman of the Arab League, <a href="http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/366790">speaking out</a> against NATO action in Libya less than twenty-four hours after the Arab League gave support to military action against Col. Qaddafi's forces, March 20, 2011</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" >9.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"> </span></span><b>So here we are. The Clinton Administration -- acceding to our allies' nail-nibbling demand for American leadership in Europe -- has brokered a peace requiring another American expeditionary force. By so doing, Clinton has painted all of us, hawks and doves, into a corner. He made an ill-considered promise in May 1993 -- with no public debate or thorough internal review or consultation with Congress -- to send U.S. ground troops to carry out what was called the Vance-Owen plan, concocted in a previous era. Now he tells us that unless his "commitment" of troops is honored and supported here, the Balkan carnage will begin again, NATO will become a dead letter and the word of the American President will be revealed as worthless. Unfortunately, that's true. Like it or not, our choice is to go along with him or repudiate and humiliate him. That's <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Hobson's</span> choice, which is no choice at all. We'll go along. Why? Because he may be mistaken in his method, but his belated Bosnia activism is not foolhardy, U.N.-subordinated, mean-spirited or immoral. With luck, it could even work.</b></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]-->- William <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Safire</span>, New York Times <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E0D81339F930A15752C1A963958260">editorial</a>, <i>Biting Bosnia's Bullet, </i>November 23, 1995</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">10. <b>Q: Mr. President, I know you must have given it a lot of thought, but what do you think is the real reason that Americans are the prime target of terrorism? Could it be our policies?</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A: Well, we know that this mad dog of the Middle East has a goal of a world revolution, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Moslem</span> fundamentalist revolution, which is targeted on many of his own Arab compatriots. And where we figure in that, I don't know. Maybe we're just the enemy because—it's a little like climbing Mount Everest—because we're here. But there's no question but that he has singled us out more and more for attack, and we're aware of that. As I say, we're gathering evidence as fast as we can.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">- Helen Thomas and Ronald Reagan, <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2011/03/04/flashback-reagan-labeled-gaddafi-as-mad-dog-of-the-middle-east/">press conference</a> concerning Col. Qaddafi, April 9, 1986</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">11. <b>And there's no peace / On this terrible shore / And every day is a battle / How we still love the war.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">- The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Mekons</span>, "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtMhfhutZ1Y">Hate Is The New Love</a>," <i><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">OOOH</span>! (Out Of Our Heads)</i>, 2002</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">12. <b>Listen, I want to thank the Vice President and the leadership of the Congress for coming down for breakfast today. We had a really good discussion about our common concerns. We also talked about Iraq. We talked about the fact that Saddam Hussein has stiffed the United Nations for 11 long years, and that, once again, he said -- made some kind of statement, trying to take the pressure off of himself. This statement about unconditional inspections was something he's made in the past. He deceives, he delays, he denies. And the United States, and I'm convinced, the world community, aren't going to fall for that kind of rhetoric on -- by him again. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>We talked about a resolution out of Congress and how it was important for us to work with Congress to pass a strong resolution. I told the members that within the next couple of days this administration will develop language as -- that we think is necessary. And we look forward to working with both Republicans and Democrats to get a resolution passed. I want to thank the leadership for its commitment to get a resolution done before members go home for the election break. I think it's an important signal. It's an important signal for the country, but as importantly, it's an important signal for the world to see that this country is united in our resolve to deal with threats that we face. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>And so, thank you all for coming. I'll take a couple of questions.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">- President George W. Bush, <a href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020918-1.html">remarks</a> after meeting with Congressional leaders regarding unilateral action in Iraq, the Oval Office, September 18, 2002</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">13. <b>The President does not have the power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">- Candidate for President Barack Obama, <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/CandidateQA/ObamaQA/">speaking to</a> Charlie Savage, <i>Boston Globe</i>, December 20, 2007</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></p>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-48048474134843500302011-03-17T20:15:00.000-07:002011-03-18T10:52:53.188-07:00And Of Course We Will No Doubt Be Greeted As Liberators<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaYYUo4i23f1WPrJ1lHRM42dw8WY_UHChgydJqAE9SO2rCm-A_cyMbFehQg_2ezvIGYgG9SAdb9ktu7ZzttPVkvJUALbDgT4Off6ii8oWKSHrZNimZuLe3Ajph_wxZV_mNhyQhA2wvOE/s1600/no-fly_zone_1178735.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 326px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaYYUo4i23f1WPrJ1lHRM42dw8WY_UHChgydJqAE9SO2rCm-A_cyMbFehQg_2ezvIGYgG9SAdb9ktu7ZzttPVkvJUALbDgT4Off6ii8oWKSHrZNimZuLe3Ajph_wxZV_mNhyQhA2wvOE/s400/no-fly_zone_1178735.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5585254042094099090" /></a><br /><div><p class="MsoNormal">I've always made a point of avoiding that specific and odd type of historical amnesia, so often displayed in politics, that paints prior foes in a sepia tone of nostalgia once they have shuffled off the main stage and been replaced by acolytes or successors. Not so much forgiveness as forgetfulness, it's the type of softening that allows contemporaries to anoint Ronald Reagan as a staunch ally of unions, Richard Nixon as a steadfast environmentalist, Bill Clinton a model of principles and affability (I was recently astonished to hear my mother make some sort of claim that she'd always liked Clinton personally, which is certainly not the way I recall our dinner conversations during my high school years). "There was somebody you could reason with," begins many an <i>apologia</i> concerning some political figure once deemed the very picture of unhinged radicalism. Both old leftists and grizzled right-wingers eventually make some sort of peace with their prior enemies, and while a bit of ideological flexibility is always welcome, it will be a strange day indeed when a group of progressives in the near future sit opining about the current state of affairs, saying, "Now, say what you will about Sarah <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Palin</span>, but at least she....."</p><p class="MsoNormal">But allow me to briefly indulge in a bit of this political sleight-of-hand, if only because my point will be deeply ironic. And my point is this: even George W. Bush held a vote before launching the Iraq War. A cynical and meaningless vote? Perhaps. But that was more than we received this past Thursday, as Congressional voices were bypassed and no debate offered as our current administration acted upon the rising calls to action in North Africa. And while much of the nation was no doubt busy honoring their Irish heritage by ordering up a second car bomb, yet another display of unilateral executive power was entering the official record.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I don't wish to make too strong of an argument against taking action against the brutal suppression of rebel forces, and I don't want to deny the largely humanitarian impulses behind such action. Word of an immediate cease fire agreement from the Libyan tyrants has already made the rounds of the international press, and despite the long sorry history of broken cease fires (often mere stalling tactics) and the cagey lies served up by Colonel <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Gaddafi</span> for generations, the news is indeed welcome and hopeful (and also, um, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-18/hague-suggests-u-k-forces-will-respond-to-libya-un-resolution.html">rejected</a>). But one needn't have any sympathy for the amoral whirlpool that is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Muammar</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Gaddafi</span> to harbor severe reservations about yet another military adventure in a Muslim land - even a humanitarian venture, even in a land that has requested outside help, and even a military adventure couched in the safe language of the No Fly Zone. As more and more armchair warriors demanded action, many seasoned military personnel have been quietly making the case over the past few weeks that no-fly zones are far more complicated beasts than insistent <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">bloggers</span> and columnists might have the public believe. </p><p class="MsoNormal">And make no mistake, UN Resolution 1973/2011, passed with China and Russian abstaining (although with the complicity and at the urging of the Arab League) goes far beyond even a basic no-fly zone. The resolution states that participating members must agree to employ "all necessary measures" to protect civilians and populated areas - language that some might classify as vague, but I prefer to describe as pretty explicit. "All necessary measures" encompasses more than keeping airways clear of unauthorized craft or wiping out several caches of weapons. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself remarked yesterday, the events in Libya required the "need for more aggressive <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">airstrikes</span>" and the implementation of a "no-drive zone". The United States might even send military personnel in country to advise and train rebel forces. Left out of her list of recommendations was any hint at an exit strategy or how the United States might manage to maneuver its way through a complex and emerging civil war.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The response at home was rather swift,<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:5.5pt;font-family:Georgia; color:black"> </span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:5.5pt"><a href="http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/17/inside_classified_hill_briefing_administration_spells_out_war_plan_for_libya">following a classified briefing</a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black"> </span></span></span>for all senators on Capitol Hill. South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham, speaking to the press after the secret briefing, already seemed to have regained a bit of Yankee swagger as he described the upcoming attacks in plain language: "We ground his aircraft and some tanks start getting blown up that are headed toward the opposition forces". When pressed about earlier comments made concerning the vague promises made by the Obama administration, Graham brushed such ancient history aside to embrace the new reality.<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:5.5pt;font-family:Georgia; color:black"> </span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:5.5pt;color:#1F1F1F">"I want to take back criticism I gave to them yesterday and say, ‘you are doing the right thing'. My money is on the American Air Force, the American Navy, and our allies to contain the Libyans, and anybody on our side that says we can't contain the Libyan air threat -- I want them fired."</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); ">Well, that didn't take long, now did it? From ground-to-a-standstill inertia to political bipartisanship after a single secret briefing, plus the threat of termination for any and all dissenters - all in all, a pretty impressive afternoon. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); ">But by making such glib comments, I run the risk of downplaying the murderous horror currently being deployed against the rebel forces in Libya by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Gaddafi</span>. This is not my intention. Anybody with a finely-tuned historical ear will no doubt hear in Secretary Clinton's description of Colonel <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Gaddafi</span> as a monster who would do "terrible things" because "it's just in his nature....there are some creatures that are like that" an echo of President Reagan's labeling <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Gaddafi</span> "the mad dog of the Middle East" some thirty years ago - but that doesn't mean the name-calling isn't justified. Nobody suggesting that this resolution is worrisome means to gloss over the atrocities being committed on the ground, or suggest the Libyan rebels do not need and even deserve international help (although comments have been few regarding American complicity in the daily slaughter of unarmed civilians in the streets of Bahrain, our close compatriot and host of the mighty 5<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">th</span> Fleet). Rather, my concern in this matter rests on the simplistic methods used to describe the complexity of establishing and maintaining no-fly zones - both theoretical and historical. The facts are sobering. After reading more than one facile pronouncement that American forces would knock out Libyan capabilities within hours and return home by the weekend, more sober types felt the need to remind the greater public that the Iraq no-fly zone, established in 1991, was only discontinued in 2003, at the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); ">But even beyond the unknown time commitment, what worries many about this decision is the inarguable fact that no-fly zones rarely remain no-fly zones, but mutate into something larger, usually encompassing ground troops. Although the events of the Bosnian War have suffered the cruel fate of taking place nearly twenty years ago and in a land largely unknown to most Americans (and thus largely forgotten by the general public), a quick review of the NATO enforcement of the no-fly zone in that arena goes some way towards explaining how no-fly zones actually work (or do not work). My comparisons are not meant to suggest what will or will not happen in Libya, but merely to offer a little historical perspective.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><a href="http://www.afsouth.nato.int/archives/operations/DenyFlight/DenyFlightFactSheet.htm">Operation Deny Flight</a> was the name given to the two year long effort deployed during the Bosnian War of the mid-1990s, an enforcement of the no-fly zone that was eventually expanded to provide close air support for UN troops and to launch air strikes against Bosnia, thus becoming the first combat engagement in NATO history. Like many details in the Bosnian War, the evolution of NATO involvement is tied up in a potentially dizzying tapestry of names and events. Yet the major actions can actually be summarized fairly easily. The Bosnian War no-fly zone was established after the passing of <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3b00f16074.html">United Nations Resolution 816</a>. This resolution was itself an update to the earlier <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3b00f286c.html">Resolution 781</a>, which had prohibited unauthorized military flights inside Bosnian airspace. Perhaps not surprisingly, this prohibition suffered untold violations, leading to the passage of 816 and the total prohibition of all flights inside Bosnia, excepting those specifically authorized by the United Nations. The resolution stated that "all necessary measures" were to be allowed to enforce compliance - a statement exactly echoed in yesterday's decision.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">This broader measure was named Operation Deny Flight, and the project was initially launched to only enforce this no-fly zone. The first serious violation of the no-fly zone didn't occur until February of 1994, when Serbian jets bombed a Bosnian factory in what was dubbed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banja_Luka_incident"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Banja</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Luka</span> Incident</a>. In response, American F-16s shot six Serbian jets down, and soon afterwards, a larger role for NATO forces was pushed by stateside commentators. President Clinton in his State of the Union address requested a new "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lift_and_strike_(Bosnia)">lift and strike</a>" policy, while the United States put pressure on the United Nations to pass <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3b00f15330.html">Resolution 836</a>, a measure that would authorize NATO to provide close air support for the United Nations Protection Force. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">It was the Serb attack on the UN safe zone of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Gorazde</span> that eventually led UN forces to request NATO strikes, citing Resolution 836. On April 10, 1994, US Air Force jets dropped bombs for the first time upon Serbian targets. In response, the Serbian army threatened to shoot down NATO aircraft, a threat they eventually followed through with, although damage was light and NATO casualties were none, eventually leading the Serbs to call off their attacks. The next major NATO response came in the fall of 1994 during the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Bihac</span> Offensive, in which Serb aircraft utilized the proximity of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Bihac</span> to the Croatian border to repel counteroffensive measures - with NATO forces not authorized to enter Croatian airspace, the Serbs simply flew along the border, dropping back into Croatia after striking and leaving hapless NATO forces unable to act. Once again, the UN Security Council intervened, this time by passing <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3b00f13324.html">Resolution 958</a>, which allowed NATO forces to enter Croatia. It was following this ratcheting up of tensions that UN forces were first seized by Serbs, held as hostages and eventually to used as human shields - a method that soon became the Serbian army's calling card.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">The above events suggest something of the gradual manner in which an initial no-fly zone was expanded to include incursions into neighboring countries and NATO air support. This expansion continued into 1995. Following NATO bombing of the Pale ammunition dump, the Serbs seized 337 UN forces as hostages, which they utilized in increasingly dire human shield capacities. So effective was the Serbian deployment of human hostage shields that NATO ceased bombing the general Pale area, with air strikes shifting immediately to mere air patrols. It was during one of these patrols that US Air Force pilot <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/allamerican-heros-errors-bring-nato-down-to-earth-1590222.html">Scott <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">O'Grady</span></a> was targeted and shot down, an event which received much media attention (and would later be dramatized as <i>Behind Enemy Lines</i>).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">An even more notable failure by NATO was the attempted launch to protect the UN safe zone of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Srebrenica</span>, in which 60 aircraft were utilized to repel the advancing Serb forces. Dutch peacekeepers were seized and once again used as shields, and once again the raid was called off. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Srebrenica</span> fell soon after to Serb forces, and the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/675945.stm">resulting atrocity</a> has entered the history books as one of the more brutal incidents of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">widescale</span> ethnic cleansing in the latter half of the twentieth century. 8,000 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Bosniak</span> men and boys were murdered in the following week - the largest mass murder to occur in Europe since World War Two. This act of genocide led to the London Conference decision, in which UN military commanders were first given authority to request NATO <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">airstrikes</span> without consulting civilian UN officials, while a further agreement in principle was made for future large-scale NATO strikes.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">The no fly zone was effectively superseded following the Second <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Markale</span> Massacre, in which civilians were targeted in the old marketplace section of Sarajevo. In response, <a href="http://www.afsouth.nato.int/factsheets/DeliberateForceFactSheet.htm">Operation Deliberate Force</a> was launched, a one month operation utilizing 5,000 personnel and 3500 flown sorties. Several soldiers and 150 civilians were killed. It was this concerted effort which eventually helped lead to the Dayton Accords, and the eventual suspension of the no fly zone.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">The above litany of events are hardly a laundry list of botched missions and grave historical mistakes, although I'm not sure what else one might call the fumbling that led to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Srebrenica</span> atrocity. And this long and involved story of the Bosnian no fly zone does not necessarily suggest any awaiting disaster in the sands of Libya. However, even such a brief history does help suggest the complex nature of what military experts mean when they discuss the possibilities of a "no fly zone" - the impact such actions have, their evolving nature, the demands they place on participating countries, and the limits of their effectiveness. In the final analysis, the two years of Operation Deny Flight had much less of a positive impact on the Bosnian War than the one month of Operation Deliberate Force. Perhaps the ultimate legacy of the Bosnian no fly zone was its overall <i>ineffectiveness</i> - the way in which its failures or limitations helped build a growing consensus for an increased aircraft role which eventually culminated in Operation Deliberate Force.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">Make no mistake, instituting a no fly zone is entering into a state of war. Right, a state of war already exists in Libya. Right, one could hardly ask for a more <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">cartoonish</span> emblem of evil than Colonel <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Gaddafi</span>. And right, the United States has often been on the wrong side of history when it comes to halting the spread of atrocities. This is and will be a humanitarian venture. Yet we gloss over the details at our peril. Libya is a country America has long misunderstood and failed to comprehend, one with a complicated colonial past, a Muslim nation, and one with plenty of wavering inhabitants who may have little compunction heeding Gaddafi's calls to once again take up arms to fight the invading colonial powers (if Italy takes part in these efforts, the historical ironies will be headache-inducing). America is bogged down in two concurrent wars with two other Muslim nations while struggling against a devastated economy and political upheaval back home. Libyan intervention may be a more justified military excursion than our long bloody excursion into Iraq, it may help stop Gaddafi's cruelty against his own people, and it may well prove our mettle and daring-do. But pay close attention to those three words embedded in the recent resolution. "<i>All necessary measures</i>" encompasses both a world and time. The possibilities are yet unexamined. I'll stand with anybody who wants to see the Libyan rebels succeed in this ever-expanding Jasmine Revolution. But don't oversimplify the job ahead of us in both the near and distant future.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-75227332106148627942011-03-08T15:27:00.000-08:002011-03-09T09:02:11.518-08:00Mr. Sheen Will Beat You Now: But Don't Mention The Producers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEjr5Kfi7lsfANxnHGoSfEKiKioDg2789lOBQUxWYQ5eDUPNdGN35rytIvI5nAQJAkhcBGzzzrhxwh3zST-51gSfTbNFdmRdgW3Toh4_7SIx9_moj9baoZgKLWiryjuF6weoBVdvSQE5Q/s1600/Sheen5.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 294px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEjr5Kfi7lsfANxnHGoSfEKiKioDg2789lOBQUxWYQ5eDUPNdGN35rytIvI5nAQJAkhcBGzzzrhxwh3zST-51gSfTbNFdmRdgW3Toh4_7SIx9_moj9baoZgKLWiryjuF6weoBVdvSQE5Q/s400/Sheen5.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581855232826300402" /></a>The very public meltdown of Charlie Sheen has been somewhat refreshing, in a celebrity meltdown kind of way. Jaded as the American public no doubt was after episodes of Mel Gibson spouting bigotry at arresting cops, John <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Galliano</span> slurring anti-<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Semitic</span> curses while bobbing and weaving from a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">barstool</span>, Britney Spears bouncing children on her driver's-side knee and babbling about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Kabbalah</span>, and Lindsay <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Lohan</span> doing another monosyllabic <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">faceplant</span> into the sea figs, Sheen's startlingly coherent and articulate rants suggest a wily intelligence behind his rage. Lobbing gobs of wit and effortlessly creating more than one turn of phrase, the last few weeks have revealed a television star who seems to yearn for the days of the Algonquin Round Table - a coke-binging Oscar Wilde, leaning forward into the camera in excitement rather than reclining back in boredom. His acid-etched speeches read like the kind of wittily mean scripts Hollywood doesn't circulate anymore. <div><br /></div><div>The meltdown has captivated people far outside the normal orbit of CBS sitcoms, as the above <i>Charlie Sheen Quote As New Yorker Cartoon </i>spoof suggests (there are <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/charlie-sheen-quotes-as-new-yorker-cartoons?awesm=awe.sm_5GqQO&utm_content=awesm-tweet-button-horizontal&utm_medium=awe.sm-twitter&utm_source=twitter.com">more here</a>), and if a few freewheeling interviews are all it takes to cancel the most insipid program ever to claim <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">TV's</span> highest ratings, well, one wishes Jennifer <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Aniston</span> and Matt <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">LeBlanc</span> had gone off on benders and done the same back in the sorry days of <i>Friends. </i>And even upon hearing the news that he'd been fired from <i>Two And A Half Men</i>, Sheen fired back in memorable form, noting of his one-time employers, "They continue to be in breach, like so many whales". It's that "like so many" bit that's brilliant, pushing it upwards towards classic retort status. </div><div><br /></div><div>But in and among the juicier details, <a href="http://tmz.vo.llnwd.net/o28/newsdesk/tmz_documents/0307_sheen_full_b.pdf">buried deep</a> within the letter/legal notice Warner Brothers sent announcing their decision to fire Sheen was a clause citation that should raise the hackles on anybody paying attention. Briefly, the studio notes their legal ability to break an actor's contract if a felony act has been committed - specifically, any act "which constitutes a felony offense involving moral turpitude under federal, state, or local laws, or is indicted or convicted of any such offense". Both parties agree (or insist) that no felony offense <i>has</i> been committed as such, although Warner Bros. points out that one was plea bargained down, and allege that others are suspected to have been committed, specifically involving cocaine. Thus, legal grounds for contract termination.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, even the most casual observer recognizes the real felony committed by Charlie Sheen - the ultimate Hollywood atrocity of talking smack about the producer. In this case, it was Executive Producer Chuck Lorre playing the role of helpless victim, shockingly identified by Sheen as a "charlatan" over a live microphone, derided as a "stupid little man," and even referred to by his given name, Chaim, which I guess can be construed as anti-Semitic if you squint hard enough. Even worse, Sheen had the audacity to take credit for the success of Lorre's deathless work of art, proclaiming his ability to turn "tin cans into gold". He also demanded a raise, deciding that $3 million per episode was only fair and just.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, one might note the ubiquitous presence of Lorre's "<a href="http://www.chucklorre.com/index-2hm.php">vanity cards</a>," bizarre even by television standards, some of which did nothing short of call out Sheen for his outrageous on- and off-stage antics. One might retort that being derided as a "stupid little man" is, indeed, hurtful. But in the aftermath of Sheen's getting the ax from <i>Two And A Half Men</i> after going defiantly off-script, it's helpful to consider some earlier actions of Sheen's that did <i>not</i> result in any network or studio hauling out their "felony" escape clause in order to distance themselves from the troubled actor.</div><div><br /></div><div>To wit:</div><div><br /></div><div>* 1990, Sheen shoots then-fiancee Kelly Preston in the arm, in an event later described as an "accident," although Preston soon thereafter called off said engagement.</div><div><br /></div><div>* 1994, Sheen is sued by a female college student on claims he punched her in the head after she expressed a disinterest in having sex. The case was settled out of court.</div><div><br /></div><div>* 1996, Brittany <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Ashland</span>, a sometime porn actress, was thrown to the floor during a physical altercation with Sheen, for which he paid a legal fine.</div><div><br /></div><div>* 2006, then-wife Denise Richards files a restraining order against Sheen, alleging he shoved her during a fight and threatened to murder her.</div><div><br /></div><div>* 2009, third wife Brooke Mueller had a knife held to her throat by Sheen during a violent altercation, for which he pleaded guilty and was placed on probation.</div><div><br /></div><div>* 2010, a violent rampage by Sheen led actress Capri Anderson to place an emergency call to police while barricaded inside a locked bathroom at the Plaza Hotel.</div><div><br /></div><div>* 2011, long-suffering third wife Brooke Mueller places another restraining order against Sheen after he threatens to kill her, specifically promising to cut her head off, stuff it into a box, and mail the severed head to her parents. The order granted, Sheen's two sons are removed from his home for protective custody.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ooh, what a bad boy! Ooh, what a lovable rogue!</div><div><br /></div><div>Glancing over the above pathetic rap sheet shows up thugs like Ben <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Roethlisberger</span> for the misogyny-amateurs they are. And yet, both exemplify the many ways in which money-making abilities trump sadistic treatment of women, at least as far as their enabling team owners and studio execs are concerned. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Roethlisberger</span> sneered off a league-sanctioned wrist slap for two sexual assault allegations while being welcomed to the biggest prime time draw of the year with relatively open arms, just a few solid passes away from being lauded by millions and having trophies shoved into his arms. Likewise, Sheen's decades of abuse against women is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">smirkingly</span> tolerated by studio suits for the sake of a hit CBS program so long as he bows and scrapes before the men who write the checks. In both cases, one suspects, the verdict was the same - who cares about a couple of sluts so long as they're bringing in the cash.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, no, I'm not actually all that worried about Sheen and whether he'll ever get control over his demons. Me, I hope he suffers some. I remain more concerned for those who lie on the receiving end of his much-publicized arrogance, anger, and demons. And I'm not talking about Chuck Lorre.</div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-12446106461714073562011-03-02T15:11:00.000-08:002011-03-03T11:56:46.327-08:00Children, Adults and Gertle The Turtle: Or; We Wouldn't Need To Rally The Base If You People Would Just Pay Attention Year Round<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvSO9CNIubCcw_vbOcwJukmOitTqTQSsWpAeduCTBc8Rj17uAaJYlMPjzzzRM1jmlYborNCfAVVIDLtmJgQW9M_nTEheUijtwzeyKQZ4JIAwChI63HJPgu3Ym08e0FfwwmycYOhxxJOM/s1600/Tropical_Mad-Town.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 193px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRvSO9CNIubCcw_vbOcwJukmOitTqTQSsWpAeduCTBc8Rj17uAaJYlMPjzzzRM1jmlYborNCfAVVIDLtmJgQW9M_nTEheUijtwzeyKQZ4JIAwChI63HJPgu3Ym08e0FfwwmycYOhxxJOM/s400/Tropical_Mad-Town.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579923902759024018" /></a><br /><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeDcERVnkeA1AznLXIIQs-v31_LXY0fUJ5lstgjggzE7unY5ENOXDy2tCcl1ySxNUi2Afio0iesQ9vh2HOx1Mb08kWBgZfCiDLZieZNOcTrEF0Yvecb_fPcD91bQRmjDl6Yi5sEzsVAN0/s1600/protest1.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 376px; height: 241px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeDcERVnkeA1AznLXIIQs-v31_LXY0fUJ5lstgjggzE7unY5ENOXDy2tCcl1ySxNUi2Afio0iesQ9vh2HOx1Mb08kWBgZfCiDLZieZNOcTrEF0Yvecb_fPcD91bQRmjDl6Yi5sEzsVAN0/s400/protest1.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579625158103180610" /></a><br /><div>[Above images were both, supposedly, taken in Madison, Wisconsin this past week. They come from news organizations, one the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via a friend, the other - not the Journal Sentinel. You get to guess which one is which.]</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>As the epic battle for the future of the labor movement rages on in Wisconsin, it's becoming ever more clear that Gov. Scott Walker, despite any reasoning he may offer concerning budget gaps and austerity measures, is suffering from a glaring messianic complex. At play in the fields of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">MadTown</span></span> is not one governor against a stubborn special interest group, he will tell any news network willing to listen, but a Midwestern spark to alight a national fire. What else could explain that non-wavering smile of his, the easy surety with which he dismisses both critics and fact checkers, and the audacity displayed as he downplays his slavering and baseball bat-studded phone conversation with a prankster he took to be one of The Brothers Koch? </div><div><br /></div><div>In this adroit demonstration of grace under pressure, I suspect Gov. Walker looks not to Ernest Hemingway, the originator of the phrase, nor to fellow crusader George W. Bush, who despite all his mock bravado always tended to resemble the little boy in class nervous he might get called upon to answer a geography question. No, Walker seems to be looking beyond mere mortals and more towards the heavenly constellation of Ronald Reagan, whose influence grows with each passing year even as his particular brand of conservatism falls out of favor with an increasingly radicalized right. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thus, Walker has seized upon The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Gipper's</span></span> swift dismissal of 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981, which led to the defeat and dismantling of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">PATCO</span></span> trade union. Left out of most discussions concerning this undeniably epochal low point in labor history is both the fact that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">PATCO</span></span> went on strike in defiance of a quite specific law banning such actions by government unions (it was law <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">{</span>5 U.S.C. (Supp. III 1956) 118p.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; ">}</span>), and the fact that Ronald Reagan was at that time, and remains, the only U.S. President to have ever been a union member. Neither of these observances really changes the overall impact of Reagan's actions, but they at least introduce a slight hint of nuance to the oft-repeated myth of Reagan the Magic Union Buster. But this is no matter to Gov. Walker, one suspects, who has loudly compared himself to the Reagan of 1981, hoping that by showing a firm hand in front of teacher's unions he might better inspire other fiscally conservative governors to rise up with him, transform the labor landscape, and perhaps restrict women's access to basic health care rights while they're at it.</div><div><br /></div><div>But if Walker really wants his grinning visage to morph in the general public mind into Mr. Reagan, he'll have to do more than simply keep his cool as angry protesters locked outside the Capitol building beat their drums. For one thing, he could have allowed the seething public inside the building (per the general belief that it is the people's house) to witness his budget unveiling, and while raising his voice over the clattering mob, he might even have performed the old ventriloquist routine of taking a sip of water while his sock puppet outlined the ways in which he would institute a 5.5% decrease in per-student public school aid. He might have chosen not to stock the upper seating of the hall with sympathetic out-of-town goons (snuck in, they say, via <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/02/scott-walker-smuggle.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+boingboing/iBag+(Boing+Boing)">Secret Republican Tunnels</a> - how awesome is that?) in suits to clap enthusiastically at the announcement of the cessation of mandatory recycling programs. And he could certainly have come up with more creative ways to appear as a benevolent yet firm leader than by issuing <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/02/wisconsin-gop-senators-absent-democrat-staff_n_830414.html">vague threats</a> to the staffers of Wisconsin's 14 missing senators.</div><div><br /></div><div>The above actions and others - including the rumor that Capitol windows were being screwed shut to send a clear message to such meddling agitators as Ian's Pizza that feeding the revolting masses was no longer to be tolerated - might strike some as dictatorial, but I'm in a kind enough mood to find them simply a bit childish. Childish in the same way that FOX News and ace reporter Bill <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">O'Reilly</span></span> apparently tried to pass off some crowd fight scenes <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRcmeA1k-ik">with palm trees in the background</a> as being shot in the cold February streets of central Wisconsin (and they dare call others coastal elites!), and childish in the same way members of the Wisconsin Republican party have chided "outsiders" for inserting themselves into a local matter while welcoming Tea Party members bearing Ron Paul bumper stickers and out-of-state license plates into the assembly hall for support.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, that kind of childishness. I'm afraid I can't work up too much bile over the rumor that the above-mentioned Tea Party members and mysterious men in suits were planted by Gov. Walker in order to create a more welcoming environment for his school project. Misleading and slimy photo-ops and phony staging are the rule of the day among all political stripes, from the Republican Convention cameramen always zooming in on the one African-American woman spotted among the crowd to the planned release of children attending story hour exactly coinciding with a mayoral announcement of cuts to needless library programs. Call it <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">psy</span></span>-ops if you will, call it propaganda, call it "clapping points,"but it permeates the culture. Far more troubling and insidious, I would argue, is blocking public access to the bill's unveiling simply because a large opposition has been mounted against your actions. It reeks of elitism and is little more than a power grab - not unlike certain aspects of the budget itself.</div><div><br /></div><div>The announced plan by certain Wisconsin voters to pursue recall action against three highly vulnerable Republican supporters of Walker is a less childish response, but one reserves the right to be wary of recalls as a political alternative. In theory, recalls should serve as extreme measures to correct an unexpected or illegal sequence of affairs - perhaps the discovery of falsified election results or voter suppression, an obvious example of sheer incompetence or blatant corruption, or an inexcusable and unexplained betrayal of a specific and wide-impacting campaign promise. Much as I'd like to claim differently, I'm not sure if Gov. Walker fits any of these criteria, at least not in a bipartisan manner. One could make the argument that by running a campaign promising to force concessions from unions but never mentioning specifically eliminating collective bargaining, Walker has betrayed some of the people who voted for him. But I'd argue that anybody paying attention throughout Walker's race for governor - anybody who knew anything about him as a human being, his core values, and his methods of dealing with those he disagreed with - shouldn't be surprised by his actions. Voter bewilderment when an extreme right-wing candidate behaves like an extreme right-wing politician once they are in office is the reason some of us political junkies think the "undecided voter" mystique is such a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">goddam</span></span> load of bullshit.</div><div><br /></div><div>Still, it would be difficult for me to offer anything other than gentle arguments against any effort to recall Gov. Walker and his GOP minions, although I'd caution the faithful that such recall efforts - surprise surprise - are not free. It's equally difficult for me to pretend that some kind of recall activity might not be in store for the Wisconsin 14 still safely bundled up to the south inside various Illinois motel rooms. While I've come out on record as being firmly in support of the Fab 14, as they're being referred to by various admirers, far be it from me to suggest that any and all voters from the great state of Wisconsin should feel similarly. So when an article on this very matter concerning the recall of GOP senators <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/02/wisconsin-recall-2/">broke courtesy</a> of the online media organization <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">ThinkProgress</span></span>, I read it with some interest. But then an individual utilizing the clumsy screen moniker of Ted_<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Kennedys</span></span>_SEARCH_AND_RESCUE posted an immediate rebuttal, accusing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">ThinkProgress</span></span> of highlighting only one recall possibility. "Genius <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">TP</span></span>," he wrote. "Mention only the recall petitions concerning Republican Senators, but omit the recall petitions about the Democrat 14. It is why we love <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">TP</span></span>. It only gives us the news it knows we can handle and/or need".</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, at the risk of outraging my fellow progressives and the risk of defending a dude who named himself Ted_<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Kennedys</span></span>_SEARCH_AND_RESCUE (What? <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Chappaquidick</span></span>? Again? Now I know how Republicans feel when they mention George W. Bush and I immediately start yelling "Katrina! Guantanamo!" at them), the individual would seem to have a point. But, no, my brothers and sisters. He would <i>no</i>t seem to have a point - not to the discerning online readers of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">ThinkProgress</span></span>, who immediately flagged the comment for review and removal, and added their own thoughts to the debate <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">thusly</span></span>, and in order:</div><div><br /></div><div>"That is not what the article is about. Get the f*ck out of here"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Go blow a goat you <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">conservatard</span></span>!"</div><div><br /></div><div>"What you don't get enough lies and distortions at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Fux</span></span> OR Rush? <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Wah</span></span>!"</div><div><br /></div><div>I'd argue that pointing out that the recall efforts against the Democratic 14 are being <a href="http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20110228/WDH0101/102280430/Utah-group-targets-8-Democrats-for-recall">put together by a group of Utah tea party members</a>, while the effort to recall the Republican senators is a homegrown affair, might be a point worth bringing up before one suggests <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">fellating</span></span> goats. And I've previously come out strong against the growing ubiquity of the loathsome phrase "Tea-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Tard</span></span>" as an epithet for Tea <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Partiers</span></span>, not out of any desire to shelter the thin-skinned but in an attempt to remind supposedly adult individuals that nobody over the age of thirteen should be using any variation on the word "retard". Add "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">conservatard</span></span>" to that pile, too. I mean, rally the base, by all means. But leave the schoolyard taunts in the detention area.</div><div><br /></div><div>But in and among the sniping, the hate, the lying, the backstabbing, the moral superiority, the endless links to endless op-ed pieces, the shaky rhetoric, the misspellings, the threats, the ignorance, and the locking voters out of the capitol building, I have managed to find a few rare beams of sunshine - all the more precious for their endangered status. Hope springs eternal.</div><div><br /></div><div>There was the news that Rep. Nick <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Milroy</span></span>, D-South Range, 73rd Assembly District, moved his entire desk set and other pieces of office furniture onto the frozen lawn via office windows so he could meet with his constituents, locked out of the people's house by Gov. Walker. Underneath Rep. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Milroy's</span></span> name was taped a handmade sign reading "Open For Business". Bundled up with a hat and jacket, he placed his telephone on the adjacent windowsill to continue making calls while chatting with several supporters from Superior who made the trip to Madison but were barred entry along with nearly everybody else.</div><div><br /></div><div>There was also an excellent, lengthy, and ultimately <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-brandzel/the-unbreakable-culture-of-occupied-capitol_b_829515.html">very moving report</a> by Ben Bradford on the cultural scene coalescing around the thousands of protesters in Madison. Bradford is at great pains to portray this group of people as an authentic grass-roots effort, but also is at great pains to highlight what makes this group of dissenters especially notable - their positivity, their intelligence, their good humor, and their common human decency. While other news organizations and politicians try to smear this effort as the actions of bums skipping out on work or disrespectful hooligans, Bradford calmly insists that what has been occurring in Madison for the past two weeks is something that both sides of the issue should feel some pride in - a massive gathering of angry individuals who have been respectful of property and individual rights. No matter whether this battle is won or lost - and it doesn't look good - I'd like to think that the rest of the country has been granted a special glimpse into our state and the amazing people who populate it. And while the decent moral fiber of our citizens is something all of us Wisconsinites, past and present, have always been aware of, it's good to share with the rest of the country. I've never been prouder to call myself a Badger.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another glimmer came in the guise of a 1958 book by Dr. Seuss, my favorite youth-oriented stealth liberal next to Fred Rogers. For those unfamiliar with the plot of <i><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Yertle</span></span> The Turtle</i> - well, no matter. What does matter is the following line of poetry, plucked from its pages by more than one youth lit-loving individual :</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><i>I know, you up on top are seeing great sights,</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But down here at the bottom, </i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>We, too, should have rights</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>And finally, there was the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_27">onsite</span></span> photograph sent to me via email by an old friend who made the trek from Milwaukee to Madison to take part in the protest. His analysis of the situation would make for good reading, but I'm tempted merely to let the below photograph speak for itself, because in its simplicity, wit, and healthy sense of the absurd, it encapsulates for me the many reasons why I will always dance to the revolution if it's thrown by some fellow Midwesterners.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMwsGa3OqMFCOT5SZ77qToCRLOVuD24qjjjDPYzluGINbZqwBouEIbH-lTzEWG4XHy5NukVH80zeHyv8mIo5icvyrDTs0Pmy1ViCSD7nSPbGLx6o29FVHO7VSxn6A13fsCO5bnljxYpU/s1600/protest+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipMwsGa3OqMFCOT5SZ77qToCRLOVuD24qjjjDPYzluGINbZqwBouEIbH-lTzEWG4XHy5NukVH80zeHyv8mIo5icvyrDTs0Pmy1ViCSD7nSPbGLx6o29FVHO7VSxn6A13fsCO5bnljxYpU/s400/protest+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579625101880421218" /></a><br /></div><div>Yes, that's the greatest comedian of our pathetic era, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. "This Bill Is Great..." he offers. "For Me To Poop On!"</div><div><br /></div><div>Juvenile? Childish? Yeah. It would hardly be Triumph The Insult Comic Dog if it wasn't. But I'd posit it's a good deal less juvenile than locking people out of buildings, stacking the deck with dozens of of your suit-besotted best friends for support, faking news footage to prove a point, or using the term "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_28">conservatard</span></span>". And as soon as you children are finished screwing windows shut and calling each other names, the adults in the room have some business they'd like to attend to. And yes, it might involve discussing a recall.</div></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-27308418936585795242011-02-25T12:58:00.000-08:002011-02-25T15:31:03.276-08:00Tricks, Dirty Tricks, and Gutless Cowards: Four Quick Ruminations on the 1 AM Massacre<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwSStPovgppdUFdycjsfjUQOBHpR4U7fd7oaEC4mx89KAMaUjCPkr9LfoKZ-brpGtPHCdcTdhxtyDyJzsjO_XlCB_E5TFKalWPchrY2-NO_xBZU40HaL3GgnTBo2737jvfvY3vOz_VB8/s1600/2011-02-25_1300.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxwSStPovgppdUFdycjsfjUQOBHpR4U7fd7oaEC4mx89KAMaUjCPkr9LfoKZ-brpGtPHCdcTdhxtyDyJzsjO_XlCB_E5TFKalWPchrY2-NO_xBZU40HaL3GgnTBo2737jvfvY3vOz_VB8/s400/2011-02-25_1300.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5577735070229133026" /></a><br /><div>Providing what certain wags designate High Quality Child Care means political events often move too quickly to provide the in-depth ruminating that's called for. But this doesn't mean there's nothing to say when you're pressed for time. In the wake of the still-evolving but it-don't-look-good struggle to preserve labor rights going down in Wisconsin, a few ideas pop out.</div><div><br /></div><div>1) A consistent trope I've come across in the many pages, posts and tweets dedicated to the Wisconsin showdown has been the notion that the fourteen Democratic senators who decamped across the border to Illinois represent some kind of cowardly capitulation - "gutless wonders," as one particularly stirred-up individual put it, who need to be dismissed by their constituents on "the grounds of cowardice" for not staying put and fighting for what they "believe" (with "believe" in scare quotes in the original, suggesting, I suppose, a lack of belief). One could debate the merits of crossing state lines to block legislation, but I'm more fascinated by the unchecked desire for heroes and men of action implicit in the charge of "cowardice". Have we reached a point in our cultural narrative when only face-to-face combat and metaphoric violence is considered acceptable? Do we no longer subscribe to a general belief in the merits and power of non-action, protest votes, and peaceful resistance? Would observers be more likely to throw support behind Wisconsin Democrats if they barricaded themselves inside offices brandishing swords, or took schoolchildren hostage while the tinny cacophony of Rage Against The Machine blared from their <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">iPhones</span>? Might there still be a recognition that the actions of the Wisconsin 14, albeit perhaps more than a little self-serving and media-savvy, are in the grand tradition of Henry David Thoreau refusing the poll tax or Abraham Lincoln leaping from a second-story window in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1840 to prevent a quorum (<a href="http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/02/24/when_lincoln_fled.html">look it up</a>, it's a little-noted event)?</div><div><br /></div><div>2) Out of the many justifications for the smoke-and-mirrors trick employed by wily <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">GOPers</span> early this morning, in which a vote was called for and closed before all present Democrats could participate, is the forcefully-argued suggestion that it simply one-upped the opposition in the dirty trick department. You dashed across state lines to block the vote, we'll slide the vote past you if you're not paying attention. Fair enough. Except I insist there remains a large and insidious difference between the two methods employed. Fleeing and holding up legislation undeniably denies others their right to vote - but it also removes the fleeing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">individual's</span> vote from the equation. Neither individual gets to vote. Unfair, yet, fair. The 1 AM quick-vote, on the other hand, denies one group the right to vote (the Democratic senators present) while managing to get one's own vote in regardless. Hence, only one individual gets to vote. I don't believe this is an example of splitting hairs - and moreover, the act of suppressing votes in any capacity is emerging as a key strategy for the rightward-leaning. Put simply: I get to vote, and you don't. </div><div><br /></div><div>3) One of the more unpleasant exchanges I witnessed (well, read) over the past week involved a vote on Wednesday by the Joint Committee on Legislative Organization in Madison to "restrict access to meeting rooms and legislative offices after normal business hours" in the Capitol - a move designed to move along the many protesters who have clogged the hallowed halls of government. A perennial thorn in the side of one progressive friend wondered aloud why this was a big deal or even troubling - after all, people do not ordinarily get to sleep in other state buildings after business hours. In addition, it was pointed out, even the homeless people sleep outside of the library, not in and among the stacks. You'll note that this is not <i>exactly </i>conflating the protesters with the homeless, but you get the sense the author wouldn't exactly mind if you made that conclusion. Given my own experiences in libraries w/r/t homeless individuals (have I ever related the time I found a guy eating chicken wings, smoking a cigar, and drinking vodka straight from the Seagram's bottle? remind me to), and the sort of mind that recalls how often protesters of any stripe are dubbed "bums" by opposition forces, I spoke out. The response noted that homeless people were actually taking advantage of the situation involving the protesters to sleep inside the capitol. I believe this nugget was supposed to scandalize me. In a way, it did. I don't often practice the slimy art of self-congratulation, but here, in this exchange, lies perhaps as clear a distillation possible of the wide gulf separating us progressives from more reactionary types. On the one hand, outrage at a bold power grab meant to wrest bargaining power away from the last vestiges of the American middle class. On the other, equal outrage that a handful of homeless people ("handful" is not my invention, by the way - straight from the article cited) are escaping the brutal Wisconsin February night to sleep inside. Being right doesn't help advance any cause, big or small. But once in a while, it feels good to remind oneself that one is, in fact, on the right side.</div><div><br /></div><div>4) Song lyric enjoyed ironically this morning : "So many people / have their problems/ I'm not interested / in their problems. / I guess I've / experienced some problems / But now I've / made some decisions. / Other people's problems / they overwhelm my mind / They say compassion is a virtue / but I don't have the time." - Talking Heads, "No Compassion"</div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-83825983960108346492011-02-17T11:48:00.000-08:002011-02-18T11:28:52.131-08:00Paging Fightin' Bob: A Few Words In Defense of Organized Labor<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMdT7zxIXZceWXYmboPNDivArFlI-tFwY10xDXAe_KOwXCNtLa2-xsoyw3InT8f5LCINwRMVQVPmDNKmt73EUh76haUjoW1v7Pbzz6nJaWcN53nvJNBOII_1ac8GQLMy9L1rFrnzOq6I/s1600/NotMyWisconsin.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 312px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHMdT7zxIXZceWXYmboPNDivArFlI-tFwY10xDXAe_KOwXCNtLa2-xsoyw3InT8f5LCINwRMVQVPmDNKmt73EUh76haUjoW1v7Pbzz6nJaWcN53nvJNBOII_1ac8GQLMy9L1rFrnzOq6I/s400/NotMyWisconsin.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574761443067726450" /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>An old acquaintance from high school, now a machine operator back in the Fox Valley of Wisconsin and a proud member of United Steelworkers, recently distributed a photograph of the outlined image of Wisconsin tattooed into his forearm. "Anyone know how I can get this removed?" he asked. A friend sardonically suggested that he "declare it a member of a public sector union and send it to Scott Walker. He'll get rid of it for you." Yet another friend, less sympathetically inclined towards the protesters, wryly noted "Thank God we live in the land of cheese. There's <i>so much</i> whine to go around".</div><div><br /></div><div>From a vantage point some two thousand miles away and ten years distant from my old home, the budget battle and financial woes that have stricken the supposedly mild-mannered Badger State seemingly differ very little from those embroiling other locations, including my adopted home of California. Yet in one essential way, and perhaps prophetically, Gov. Scott Walker's approach to his state's financial shortfall is unique - he is refusing to adopt half-measures, rely on future projections, or display a flair for creative number-shuffling. Put simply, he's made the argument that the time is now, no more excuses, duck and cover while I slash and burn.</div><div><br /></div><div>It might be tempting to admire such strong principles and Walker's refusal to bow before the beckoning yawn of budgetary illusions. After all, what is Walker's proposal to inflict historic change upon the political landscape but a welcome slice of Midwestern sensibility in the face of sleazy New York machinations or air-headed Californian delusions? Yet beneath the corn-fed and well-scrubbed face of the all-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">american</span> boy often lies darker, less innocent urges. And in truth, Walker's actions and claims reveal themselves as deeply partisan grabs - a golden opportunity to take the ax to broader political movements that were never as widely popular with the wider populace as the state's blue hue tended to suggest. The forces hostile to organized labor see in Walker's arguments the opportunity for a new alliance, one that has very little to do with balancing any kind of budget and everything to do with settling scores.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've watched the unfolding events through a combination of news outlets and social media, and while such experiences can't replace on-the-ground reporting, a few obvious points leap out. First, there are legitimate philosophical and/or economic arguments to be made in opposition to the labor movement. I don't happen to agree with them or find them persuasive, but the fact remains that several effective counter-arguments exist, from the devastating impact of strike actions to the observation that trade unions benefit insider workers to the reality of union-influenced inflation. Plenty of those hostile to the idea of organized labor make calm, reasoned, economically-informed attacks that at least emphasize the competing power struggles at work. One can take issue with their conclusions and reject their reasoning, but one cannot dismiss their broader points.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, such reasoned judgments are not the arguments most often deployed by both policy makers and the general public. Rather, what we most often come into contact with are a vague, spiteful, knee-jerk response to the very concept of organized labor. Reflexive and divisive, it's the kind of closely-held but poorly-considered opinion that can rear its head without warning, as was the case several years ago during an otherwise lovely dinner in which an acquaintance offered up, quite apropos of nothing, that he "despised unions". When pressed why (and why he brought it up during an otherwise unrelated conversation), he simply mused, "I just hate 'em."</div><div><br /></div><div>Not everybody is quite so <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">unreflective</span> when it comes to detailing their disdain. The key to general opposition to unions in this country would seem to be the generally unfounded (or at the very least circumstantial) notion that labor unions result in lazy workers - the mirage that organized workforces are forever stroking themselves, launching score-settling grievances or walking off the job to enjoy paid vacation and the beeps of horns from supporters. All the while, decent, non-unionized American workers slog on, bending their back towards the untarnished demigod of the workweek and the coveted coffee break, uncomplaining, respectful, goal-oriented, team-centered and, above all, <i>efficient</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>These are deeply ludicrous assumptions. I've heard this complaint concerning the mythical lazy and ineffectual unionized worker from many a cubicle-dwelling commuter who, no doubt, spend not one second of their high-speed-and-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">filterless</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">internet</span>-fueled days distracted by anything other than the pursuit of capital. In addition, an equally large contingent of union-bashing seems to come from comfortably situated stay-at-home-moms (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">SAHMs</span>, I believe they've labeled themselves, which sounds vaguely unionized to me) who rail against the greed and laziness inherent in the thousands of steelworkers and automakers who "get paid to not work". As a stay at home parent myself, I can attest that, yes, this job is a lot of work. And the foreman can be a real monster sometimes. But to confuse - let alone conflate - having the luxury (and the financial security) to stay home with one's child all day with punching holes into sheet metal for eight hours at a time is delusional.</div><div><br /></div><div>(Incidentally, this notion of union members "not working" carries over into nearly every aspect of the counter-union argument, most notably when it comes to striking. Time and again, one consistently hears angry variations on the notion that workers strike because they have "nothing else to do." Simultaneously attacking and dismissing strikers and protesters as "not having real jobs" or having "too much free time on their hands" is an old trick designed to diminish the real sacrifices assumed by anybody willing to assume long hours and hostile forces in support of a cause they feel strongly about. I might add that all political persuasions are guilty of such dismissals - witness the constant progressive refrain that Tea Party rallies attract large numbers of participants simply because they are predominantly made up of retired or financially secure individuals, as if the opinions or voting actions of, say, senior citizens don't count because they needn't arrange for a long lunch hour to cast their vote.)</div><div><br /></div><div>This assumption that organized labor is somehow cheating and exploiting the hard work of non-unionized American workers runs deep. I come from what might be labeled an anti-union family, although I can't recall any specific arguments or points of disagreements on the matter. While never explained, the animosity was always present, especially from my mother, a one-time teacher who, when pressed, admitted that she found the notion of going on strike "unladylike". Any deeper discussions on the matter and indeed my own opinions would have to wait until years later when, armed with an already sympathetic attitude towards worker's rights, I found myself to be a unionized employee at a New York library. My feelings were mixed, initially, especially when I contemplated the hefty bite this organization took out of my paycheck. I attended meetings voluntarily, and concluded that, yes, some of my fellow union members were indeed fools and bores. I never got over how much our union representative sounded like an unholy cross between Barney Frank and Silvio from <i>The Sopranos</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>What did I learn from my experiences as a union member? Yeah, abuses exist, and people are willing to exploit the system to protect themselves when in reality they'd serve a better purpose elsewhere. I can think of one malignant individual in particular who served up grievances at a moment's notice, monopolized meeting times and local resources for their own pathetic causes, and did a stellar job at claiming discrimination when they should have been prosecuted for incompetence. In addition, I can think of a few others who had nothing but their own selfish and petty interests in mind, who launched spurious complaints on behalf of themselves and others (including a grievance filed on my behalf that stunned me, especially since I wasn't even aware it was being filed and had literally no idea what they talking about). And yet, to remark that such examples were anomalies doesn't do justice to the reality. These were isolated and minority examples of fools, not a broader indictment of our organization. The truth of the matter, beyond anecdotes and shaggy dog stories, is that our collective interests were well served by our representatives, and that our benefits and wages were protected and argued for in a manner that improved our lives. </div><div><br /></div><div>No doubt, some readers will exclusively focus on the preceding examples given of union abuses rather than the larger argument, and this again holds true for the overall narrative utilized by anti-labor forces - namely, to isolate and explode examples of bad behavior protected by union rules. To my mind, this is an odd and reductive type of reasoning indeed that castigates an entire system due to handfuls of individual cases. If our nation took such an unforgiving approach to other aspects of American life, culture, or capital, how many services or activities would continue to be accepted or patronized? If the millions of Americans streaming through fast food drive-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">thru</span> lanes were to paint the entire industry using the brush of a few mixed-up orders or a surly attendant, how much thinner our waistlines and free-flowing our arteries? If the tedium or disappointment of an overly-hyped bad movie were to lead the nation's consumers to boycott all movie theaters, how much more well-versed in literature might we all be? The reality of human imperfection and the flawed nature of individuals leads us to fairly balance most aspects of functioning civic life. Why organized labor remains impervious to such generosity is a mystery.</div><div><br /></div><div>Moreover, the attacks on organized labor defiantly prop up its failings while studiously ignoring its successes and gains, among them the not-inconsiderable role unions had in helping to create the now endangered American middle class and the many beneficial changes made to workplace safety. I read with some amusement a naive comment from a well-meaning individual giving a friend a talking-to over the matter. Labeling unions a "thing of the past," she noted that "working conditions are not bad" as Item 1 in her dismissal of the need for organized labor. Leaving aside the possibility that this no doubt very nice individual is completely unaware of the conditions inside, say, slaughterhouses employed with non-unionized recent immigrants, one struggles to contain the rejoinder that if, indeed, working conditions are "not bad" today, they are so because of the struggles undertaken by organized labor. Remove these unions from the equation, and the vast majority of companies and the individuals who run them would quickly revert to the bad old days of underpaid, overworked employees in unsafe conditions. And while my fellow leftists might take issue with me, I'd argue that such a return would not necessarily be due to the fact that such company executives are moral monsters or even bad people. They would do so because it is in the very nature of capitalism to get the most out of one's workers at the lowest possible cost. Safety measures, benefits, and wages are hindrances to this goal. Labor unions serve as a corrective to this existing situation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Time and space limitations prevent me from venturing into the depressing and truly odd reasons for the disdain being heaped upon teachers during the current debate. From the taunting of individuals frightened of losing their jobs on Twitter to the glee with which New Jersey Governor Chris Christie suggested a teacher would have little difficulty finding a new job if she was as highly qualified as she claimed, the animosity with which union members are accustomed to dealing with is being shifted towards educators. Whether or not this suggests a larger, darker antagonism towards the very notion of education in this country, it is of a piece with the larger debate, which is quickly veering far afield of budgetary battles and closer to the arena of class warfare. Requesting across the board cuts to a wide variety of services in a time of fiscal emergency is one thing, and perhaps necessary in our post-recession landscape. But to harangue teachers as if their coffers alone had plunged the nation from the heights of world dominance to our current housing-crash miasma is absurd and deeply disingenuous. Unfortunately, this movement to dismantle any and all impediments to the dream of unfettered individuality and property is growing.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't know enough about Scott Walker to cast a final judgment, but if he's anything like the current crop of newly elected officials across this land, his approach to the budgetary crisis is meant to be divisive, swift, destructive, and fleeting. A recent article highlighted the disdain with which many of the Republican freshman hold their office and title. "We're not enamored of this place," noted Rep. Steve <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Southerland</span> of Florida, before oddly adding that, in addition to coming out of the private sector (which, by contrast, he loved), he "sleeps in a bed every night with a woman I went to first grade with". Rep. Trey <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Gowdy</span> of South Carolina proudly informed a reporter that he was unconcerned with getting re-elected, as he had "a better job back home anyway". Far be it from me or any political observer to attack individuals for eschewing cronyism, lifer status, or the hurdles necessary to be continually re-elected. In a sense, politicians more concerned with accomplishments and less with the carousel of election cycles are to be applauded. But the comments by Rep's. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Southerland</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Gowdy</span> are simply juvenile - empty boasts of their own hatred for a job and an office they were elected to. Where else might such a disdainful and cavalier attitude towards one's own profession be thinkable, let alone tolerated and applauded? Rather than any political mavericks, they give off the impression of a frat house taking out their aggression on the walls and interiors of a beach rental home, the more wanton and destructive because they know they're heading back to Michigan next week anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>This cavalier attitude towards country, constituency, community - this unfiltered hostility towards anything other than making a splashy display of political reckoning and taking down a few sacred cows - was in many ways accurately predicted in an article by Ken <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Silverstein</span> appearing in <i>Harper's </i> magazine this past July. Other predictions made by <i>Harper's</i> have since come to pass, such as their November 2006 cover story, "Barack Obama Inc: The Birth of a Washington Machine," which focused on the intense hype rapidly coalescing around the young Senator, to the May 2006 cover story "The New Road to Serfdom: An Illustrated Guide to the Coming Real Estate Collapse," which uncannily laid out the events which were to take place only a few years later. At the risk of arousing the ire of <i>Harper's</i> editors and publisher, I've offered screenshots below (click on individual shots to magnify for better reading) of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Silverstein's</span> article - "Tea Party in Sonora: For the Future of G.O.P Governance, Look To Arizona". Although the article deserves a close read, even a cursory scan reveals a glimpse of what happens and will happen when the role of governing is left up to those utterly non-serious types who claim fiscal warrior status while betraying an utter lack of interest in the actual business of running a state, city, or country. The fiasco on display in Arizona is not that of the fiscally-conservative Republican hoping to attack excessive spending and tweak the welfare state, or that of the principled Libertarian set on dismantling governmental regulation and oversight. Rather, it is a kind of anti-government, anarchism with a decidedly small <i>a </i>that derives satisfaction only through the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">demonization</span> of others and the abolition of taxation. Watch as our collective municipal quality of life plummets - as schools drift into limbo, libraries remain shuttered, parks become overgrown with weeds. No matter, they'll say. A few of us have increased our take-home pay, I rarely leave my house anymore these days, and besides, I have a better job waiting for me back home.</div><div><br /></div><div>...........................................................................................................................................</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMjQRunnWs4s4TrpXJwmG5hhU4d4VX79g-f0reP2ID3W5oVi0-r8QgeyAmJGxmpDmNGh9yOvEDNaoQN5WZnd5BZH0Z7REojNGhOJfSZiudjlEXWq7VmPOpp3cRPwEew6bWZgEy6oMhts/s1600/SonoraTeaParty1.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFMjQRunnWs4s4TrpXJwmG5hhU4d4VX79g-f0reP2ID3W5oVi0-r8QgeyAmJGxmpDmNGh9yOvEDNaoQN5WZnd5BZH0Z7REojNGhOJfSZiudjlEXWq7VmPOpp3cRPwEew6bWZgEy6oMhts/s400/SonoraTeaParty1.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574749674154614514" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgarJVYaHgOmRWWz1NCt-iQ46dP9dcmwCRItcIHNcTjGBDEBPmQtCmqSgWQuxDBrQ06AEnKXCzmA9jVBolk9klxF9rkzknFTvplLUcJOzeLR0whjEnzcxbg-bUW8dwZeiv_omhnSG9Ku3c/s1600/SonoraTeaParty2.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 331px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgarJVYaHgOmRWWz1NCt-iQ46dP9dcmwCRItcIHNcTjGBDEBPmQtCmqSgWQuxDBrQ06AEnKXCzmA9jVBolk9klxF9rkzknFTvplLUcJOzeLR0whjEnzcxbg-bUW8dwZeiv_omhnSG9Ku3c/s400/SonoraTeaParty2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574749616029288706" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8O2i9vTXX644XRmEutZKZSwlduQMo2hEMnlnTqwzigPo2LfPmAe3oCZjOONzE29eVe1xmabonrzZ30bIjt-bj1EGY5_4DQoJBkmJaSEdBC8_ZB9TvBKdmraC4tqzdzZ9ouiTu59EsQMk/s1600/SonoraTeaParty3.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 329px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8O2i9vTXX644XRmEutZKZSwlduQMo2hEMnlnTqwzigPo2LfPmAe3oCZjOONzE29eVe1xmabonrzZ30bIjt-bj1EGY5_4DQoJBkmJaSEdBC8_ZB9TvBKdmraC4tqzdzZ9ouiTu59EsQMk/s400/SonoraTeaParty3.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574749502274678418" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8iZ4j-0B8j9khqMjG5ie1VGZOh4oGzREpa-IEBF0sEmYsHOhHCCOt-RgWQl7BKl-DaanmTn9eZPHdFNU84IreFFGDRSP1dX18kXVkdOyR9PWT_g2GC0vS2Q4rPt0bx0KAjmbRaxugXTc/s1600/SonoraTeaParty4.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 331px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8iZ4j-0B8j9khqMjG5ie1VGZOh4oGzREpa-IEBF0sEmYsHOhHCCOt-RgWQl7BKl-DaanmTn9eZPHdFNU84IreFFGDRSP1dX18kXVkdOyR9PWT_g2GC0vS2Q4rPt0bx0KAjmbRaxugXTc/s400/SonoraTeaParty4.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574749445062602194" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinrYcjcYnf9-U9ZJTxHcKrOGm1Kr9_ZAbO3rk_imaQmF_h3l4qB61uoQ32CXuW9q9gsKvKZyANUSwousasZgNEjSPBw593bd2eswaYFx4QbbVPaV5KoYgbqlg8xCOjOWFhSowBCyqzdFY/s1600/SonoraTeaParty5.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 328px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinrYcjcYnf9-U9ZJTxHcKrOGm1Kr9_ZAbO3rk_imaQmF_h3l4qB61uoQ32CXuW9q9gsKvKZyANUSwousasZgNEjSPBw593bd2eswaYFx4QbbVPaV5KoYgbqlg8xCOjOWFhSowBCyqzdFY/s400/SonoraTeaParty5.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574749378618387474" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9MuUIgnOIQNCzE8wUlAuy0zlcRJmmLhrz48qU1KNlVOB6W7vwgsvEDYPay5OI-e-Hcld95K9B1rzVfhS8m20AUw4TZSFK2wSVbjcFL6s9f1wLW-ZV1EUEzvTZY-U18hOSCmchcmimNu0/s1600/SonoraTeaParty6.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 328px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9MuUIgnOIQNCzE8wUlAuy0zlcRJmmLhrz48qU1KNlVOB6W7vwgsvEDYPay5OI-e-Hcld95K9B1rzVfhS8m20AUw4TZSFK2wSVbjcFL6s9f1wLW-ZV1EUEzvTZY-U18hOSCmchcmimNu0/s400/SonoraTeaParty6.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5574749329820947266" /></a><br /></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-32341767507947558722011-02-10T11:24:00.000-08:002011-02-10T12:45:55.608-08:00A Poet Explains: Giacomo Leopardi on Memory and the Present ("L'Infinito" and Canti)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG58eAl47xB7ZqaGFN-avymQgmf-Mj0xTgok1YjxlV1G-gG0vXeLiLElDG9AZ-j1LDY-9kJ_JWx6NOy6XyHZcAsecpfOynYOuYyi_c28LhwUivn5Tb1djK7YtfzbBaViquPoZ3FG3qUKE/s1600/Giacomo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 198px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG58eAl47xB7ZqaGFN-avymQgmf-Mj0xTgok1YjxlV1G-gG0vXeLiLElDG9AZ-j1LDY-9kJ_JWx6NOy6XyHZcAsecpfOynYOuYyi_c28LhwUivn5Tb1djK7YtfzbBaViquPoZ3FG3qUKE/s400/Giacomo.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572144589362525906" /></a><br /><div>The disconnect between what artists express through their work and how they explain their art through regular discourse is often startling, if not disappointing. There have been many visionaries and creative minds who seem easily able to highlight their opinions and methods to curious admirers, helping place their work in the proper context, and even dissecting deeper, more obscure meanings not obvious to the outsider. However, I can think of just as many examples of great artists who have little or nothing to say about their work and the process by which it reveals itself. Some choose to take a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">contrarian</span> position and refuse to take apart their work, while others seem simply incapable of standing outside themselves and honestly reflecting on their talents or ideas.</div><div><br /></div><div>So it always comes as a welcome surprise when a great artistic mind allows him or herself the opportunity to welcome the reader or observer into their closed circle, and a recent essay by Robert <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Pogue</span> Harrison on the sad life and astonishing output of Italian poet <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Leopardi">Giacomo <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Leopardi</span></a> (1798 - 1837) offers a stellar example. The name <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Leopardi</span> may not resonate with non-Italian readers in the same manner as other early-nineteenth century poets, and this is no doubt partly due to the original and idiosyncratic approach to the Italian language <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Leopardi</span> chose - a method which resulted in unique poetry that has proven difficult to translate even by the tough standards of verse. </div><div><br /></div><div>A large part of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Leopardi's</span> legend (and he remains legendary in his native Italy to this day) is due to the tragic circumstances surrounding his short life - a life impacted from youth onward with countless health complications, including asthma, dropsy, scoliosis and chronic insomnia. From his late teens, he was aware that he would die young and in pain. While this morbid realization certainly shaped his worldview and notably modern outlook on life (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">ie</span>, the non-existence of God, the random character of life, and the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">unredemptive</span> qualities of the human condition), some readers and critics place far too much emphasis on the role played by his own suffering in helping to create the visionary mind and critical thinker behind his poetry. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Leopardi's</span> acceptance of the chaos of a non-spiritual world is one he arrived at through intellectual means, not simply as a result of his own misfortune. And this worldview is notable because it shades and indeed drives nearly all of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Leopardi's</span> writings, especially his insistence that progress was a myth and that his contemporaries looked unhesitatingly and enthusiastically towards the future at their peril. The past, in his mind and work, weighs heavily.</div><div><br /></div><div>But <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Leopardi</span> explains in a journal entry that his concern with the past and memory is much more than the backwards glance of the sentimentalist. By insisting on the need for memory and experience to influence observation, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Leopardi</span> is arguing that one can view the immediate landscape and world through a much richer prism than so many of his (and our) hurrying and distracted contemporaries. He writes :</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">To the sensitive and imaginative man, who lives, as I have lived for a long time, feeling and</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">imagining continuously, the world and its objects are in a certain sense double. He will see</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:Georgia;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"> with </span></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">his eyes a tower, a countryside; he will hear with his ears the sound of a bell; and at the same time he will see another tower, another countryside, he will hear another sound. In this second sort of object lies all the beauty and pleasure of things. Sad is the life (and yet such is life for the most part) that sees, hears, senses only simple objects, namely those of which eyes, ears, and the other senses receive a mere sensation.</span></i></div><div><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"><br /></span></i></div><div><br /></div><div>To move from this journal entry to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Leopardi's</span> poem "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">L'Infinito</span>," as Harrison points out, is to see his beliefs put into poetic action - a poem celebrating the ability of the mind to gaze upon an inert landscape and travel freely in both time and space, an ability sorely lacking in the many rushing hordes around him.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><i>This lonely hill was always dear</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>to me,</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and this hedgerow, which cuts off</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>the view</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>of so much of the last horizon.</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But sitting here and gazing, I can</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>see</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>beyond, in my mind's eye,</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>unending spaces,</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and superhuman silences, and</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">depthless</span> calm,</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>till what I feel</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>is almost fear. And when I hear</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>the wind stir in these branches, I</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>begin</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>comparing that endless stillness</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>with this noise:</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and the eternal comes to mind,</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and the dead seasons, and the</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>present</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>living one, and how it sounds.</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>So my mind sinks in this</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>immensity:</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>and foundering is sweet in such</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>a sea.</i></div><div><br /></div><div>(translation taken from the new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Canti-Poems-Bilingual-Giacomo-Leopardi/dp/0374235031"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Farrar</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Straus</span> and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Giroux</span> edition</a>, translated by Jonathan <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Galassi</span>)</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4969248830488868502.post-43082394633146687602011-01-20T10:48:00.000-08:002011-01-20T12:19:47.523-08:00A Checklist of Civility From One Who Knew: What American Politicians Could Learn From Andrei Sakharov<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3h9NjDcM8ICCHsoPAH3tCEFnnJ6uH0awZRnBvpRNIlRmNANAESVQ290iEuOOBI9XqVu6y1bWvk4COVq9lQJdTu6fd67oW0zEgLaG6Gope09eY1gAVEa346H4RVZCbsCdwjkgSYsQZPo/s1600/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzA.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 293px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3h9NjDcM8ICCHsoPAH3tCEFnnJ6uH0awZRnBvpRNIlRmNANAESVQ290iEuOOBI9XqVu6y1bWvk4COVq9lQJdTu6fd67oW0zEgLaG6Gope09eY1gAVEa346H4RVZCbsCdwjkgSYsQZPo/s400/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzA.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5564359128788683250" /></a><br /><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; "><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span">I gave the recent, expected and largely symbolic vote in the House to repeal the Affordable Health Care For America Act - also known as (let me check my notes here), "The Job-Killing Health Care Law Act" - the same amount of attention I tend to give any act of political theater - skeptical disinterest. Not because I believe the current act is a flawless piece of legislature, and not because I suspect all those in favor of repeal to be cold-hearted ignoramuses (I don't). My disinterest stems from a larger recognition that when the cameras roll and the speeches drip out in our hallowed halls of government, the partisan blather from both sides of the aisle is mostly notable for its abuse of rhetorical flourishes and heavy dependence upon creative use of the facts.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">If this most recent vote represented a flashy bow to maddened constituents and the rote fulfillment of a specific campaign promise, so be it. Many new members of Congress and the Senate ran explicitly on the issue of repealing health care legislation, and whatever one's feelings on the subject, one would need to be suffering from an extreme case of cynicism to believe at least a few of these individuals weren't going to follow through on their threats. And if this symbolic vote serves merely to fire off an opening salvo before getting down to brass tacks - or, as David Frum opined, "real work" - again, so be it. It would neither be the first not the last time that vote tallies were used as simple marking points of officeholder opinion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">But I suspect that we haven't heard the last of repeal efforts, and I suspect we shall see more political grandstanding and empty rhetoric in the days, weeks and months to come. The vast majority of our disagreements and arguments will have very little to do with tangible political operations and almost everything to do with an upcoming election and a jockeying for position - any position, doesn't matter which. Most will be abandoned and forgotten come mid-November 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">The nonsense has already started, and of course it has never gone away. Yes, there was a queasy "truce" offered in the aftermath of the bloodbath in Tucson - a bloodbath where a disgruntled citizen exercised multiple State-of-Arizona-protected-rights up until the very second before he fired a bullet directly into the head of Gabby Giffords - and an earnest suggestion to break up seating arrangements during the upcoming State of the Union address (as if the halls of government are high school cafeterias, with the jocks ordered to make room at their table for the transfer student or the swing choir lead). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">But addicts must struggle to control their jones, and to deny the dimmer lights of our ruling class the ability to spread hysteria and confusion is to witness the ugly twitchings of an enforced cold turkey cleanse. </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span">Sarah Palin made a typically graceless and tone-deaf intrusion into a day set aside to honor the Tucson dead by comparing her treatment at the hands of a few bloggers and media types to the plight of the Jewish diaspora and the wicked lie of blood-laced matzo. Congressman Steve Cohen, Democrat from Tennessee, granted Palin her blood libel and raised her a Holocaust, exclaiming from the floor of the House, "A <span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;color:black">government takeover of health care [is a] big lie, just like Goebbels. You say it enough, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, you repeat the lie, and eventually people believe it. The Germans said enough about the Jews and the people believed it and you had the Holocaust". Virginia Freshman Morgan Griffith similarly glanced backwards to showcase his impressive grasp of history when he declaimed, "</span></span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:9.0pt;color:black">No Virginian should be required to buy health care insurance. As a Virginian, we did not accept the chains of George III, and we will not accept the chains of Obamacare." California Republican Devin Nunes helpfully noted that all democrats were guilty of "anti-capitalist hate speech," Michigan Democrat Sander Levin countered that his party was "an American truth squad," and the always entertaining Michelle Bachman upped the ante by labeling our fairly mild health care bill the "crown jewel of socialism" and promised to repeal the president <i>himself</i>, which would admittedly require quite a bit of paperwork.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; ">As impressive as all this posturing may come across on C-SPAN, this is empty-headed and feeble. Playing to the base and utilizing shameless campaign rhetoric during an off-election year, the American public is no doubt getting an earful of the talking points cable news viewers will be battered with during the next year and a half. "Truth". "Hate" And "Socialism," mustn't forget "Socialism". </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; "></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;color:black">Since we're all participating in the grand tradition of making broad and unjustified Nazi comparisons to undesirable tax laws or civic betterment projects, I'm going to allow myself the rare detour into Nazi paraphrasing. Namely, whenever I hear the word socialism, I reach for my remote. Or, even better, I reach for the life and example of Russian dissident and intellectual Andrei Sakharov, who knew better than most the real effects of actual state control, and who used his position in Soviet society to call for reforms, criticize abuses of power, and always championed a restrained and emotionally controlled form of protest.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;color:black"></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;color:black">As the Polish writer Adam Michnik recently pointed out, Sakharov avoided party loyalties, ethnic nationalism and easy populism. "He is proof of the rationality of democratic protest," Michnik argues, "never call[ing] for revolution or violence...uncompromising when that was necessary, but ready to compromise when that seemed desirable." The result of his labors for justice should not be surprising - tight Soviet police surveillance, campaigns of slander and character assassination, banishment from Moscow and exile to the isolation of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod, and at that time closed to foreigners). Here is an individual operating within the confines of real socialism, not the sprinkling of services Michele Bachmann isolates and paints broadly with a red brush. And yet to compare his calm, reasoned dissents with the ham fisted TV spots of our junior representatives is to ponder the conversational differences between toddlers and adults.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span">So reprinted below is what Adam Michnik recently highlighted as the political legacy and philosophy of Andrei Sakharov - a seven-point argument for the kinds of stances and civility our leaders offer empty talk of but never once deign to touch. While it would make for much less entertaining C-SPAN sequences and might not land you a spot with Keith Olbermann or Sean Hannity, there's no reason on earth it shouldn't be reprinted and mounted above the desk of each and every one of our elected leaders. One suspects more than a few would balk at having the words of any Russian, dissident or not, anywhere near their office.</span></span></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span">********************************************************************************************************************************</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; "></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; ">Andrei Sakharov's Seven Points of Civil Society (via Adam Michnik)</span></span><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><b> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;color:black">- Patience and fidelity to principle</span></span><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><b> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;color:black">- Pluralism and willingness to compromise - we must accept that honest disagreements will occur</span></span><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><b> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;color:black">- Tolerance</span></span><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><b> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;color:black">- "The better -- the better" (exactly unlike Lenin's "the worse -- the better")</span></span><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><b> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;color:black">- The patriotism of free peoples: a nation that persecutes another nation cannot itself be free</span></span><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><b> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;color:black">- Fidelity to historic truth</span></span><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><span class="Apple-style-span"><b> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>- Renunciation of violence</b></span></span></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; "><o:p></o:p></p></span></div>JasonGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11151020924911260858noreply@blogger.com0