tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3131401658257081412024-02-18T21:44:14.569-06:00It's In The Wrist, DollIn which a seriously flawed woman takes on life one more time. Art, photography, beads and politics ought to get me started. Author is randomly various as will soon be self-evident. Don't say ciao to the old brown cow just now.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-40213961670107441652009-07-30T19:17:00.004-05:002009-07-30T21:05:43.328-05:00No wonder life sucks--it's run by sociopathsMost of us want a world in which we have some control. At least that's my working theory as to why so many are eager to blame the ills of the economy on people who borrowed and lived beyond their pay scale.<br /><br />They want to blame individual choice when in fact, entire industries are mobilized to influence regular people to make unwise choices. It plays right into the very American belief that the sun will come out tomorrow. If you think you can't be manipulated, you are lying to yourself. Some of the best minds in creation work on it 60 hours a week--middle management and everyone who's below them on the corporate tree. They're good at their jobs, and in the interest of disclosure, I used to be one.<br /><br />Capitalism got a few out of serfdom and into the merchant class, but let's remember that there never was a stable, large middle class until the balance of power was shifted. That meant bloody and sacrificial battles that brought us unions, civil rights, safety nets and all those things that have systematically dismantled by the Republican Second Coming, Ronald Reagan.<br /><br />I'm not saying he set out to make life so damn hard for so many, I don't think he really was smart enough to think that far ahead. I'm just saying there wasn't a widespread homeless population until he closed mental health institutions. Everything that gave the little guy something became low hanging fruit, ripe for picking and turning into dessert for them that already had as much fruit as they could eaten in a lifetime. Remember the trickle down theory? It was a brilliant and superficial notion that never really goes away. The rich know how to spend money. The poor don't. The rich do the hiring. So let's give them more money. This notion sounded just plausible enough that it justified the largest transfer of wealth from the many to the few. The little guy bought it. Never mind he did it against his own welfare, not to mention Reagan borrowed most of the money to do it.<br /><br /><br />In today's edition of AlterNet, this caught my attention:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141615/it%27s_not_hard_to_be_a_job-slashing%2C_pension-grabbing_ceo_--_if_you%27re_a_sociopath/"></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.alternet.org/workplace/141615/it%27s_not_hard_to_be_a_job-slashing%2C_pension-grabbing_ceo_--_if_you%27re_a_sociopath/">It's Not Hard to Be a Job-Slashing, Pension-Grabbing CEO -- If You're a Sociopath<br /><br />By Thom Hartmann, Smirking Chimp. Posted July 28, 2009.<br /></a><br />CEOs in America pull in the big bucks because there's a shortage of people willing to destroy the lives of many other human beings.<br /><br /><br />The Wall Street Journal reported last week that "Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the US... Highly paid employees received nearly $2.1 trillion of the $6.4 trillion in total US pay in 2007, the latest figures available."<br /><br />One of the questions often asked when the subject of CEO pay comes up is, "What could a person such as William McGuire or Lee Raymond (the former CEOs of UnitedHealth and ExxonMobil, respectively) possibly do to justify a $1.7 billion paycheck or a $400 million retirement bonus?"<br /></blockquote><br />Those who won't make an arguments on its merits might accuse me of envy, but really kids, there's nothing to envy beyond a given amount of worldly goods. In a world where babies die of hunger and diarrhea and mosquito bites, who can honestly justify the top guns bringing in a third of a nation's salary?<br /><br />These are the very same people Obama is trying to appease with concessions that protect their status quo, one that feeds an undeniable urge to have as much as possible and to hell with the greater good. Look at the smiles in Big Pharma. They're funding Harry and Louis commercials in favor of health reform because they'll have it better than ever. At least now, my dad can send off to Canada to fill the hole in donut. Not after reform. No negotiations for lower prices either, and the patent period is extended to 12 years.<br /><br />The sociopaths yield so much power and influence, they even have middle class folks who won't be able to afford college for their kids that the blame lays with people whose eyes are bigger than their income. Their eyes devour the world.<br /><br />They hide under the impenetrable fog we call capitalism and damn all else by calling it socialism. There's a place in between. Where no one goes without the necessities and yet personal effort is rewarded. Who in the world is worth more than a million while hunger is widespread, largely due greed and sociopathic inhumanity?Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-80532905517641561022009-07-09T14:33:00.004-05:002009-07-09T15:18:40.344-05:00Weak and way too feeble for a woman with my strong opinions<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLFuarCwqg28j5-96Ur092ruwRIs0Rhop9i2sfby_jVkEPu7cS1WG96emcW8w6GgiHA-DPqrswmCUfdo7oGq8XFONMKX7mDLCcwv62fhCznpf4Tx7CEg5V2rydJceKZTz8MRTKBxToFnE/s1600-h/july+6+2009+039.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLFuarCwqg28j5-96Ur092ruwRIs0Rhop9i2sfby_jVkEPu7cS1WG96emcW8w6GgiHA-DPqrswmCUfdo7oGq8XFONMKX7mDLCcwv62fhCznpf4Tx7CEg5V2rydJceKZTz8MRTKBxToFnE/s400/july+6+2009+039.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356550622486934226" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjokxfJh-ceGj-fRmKCuVVon4XHY3kjS3GGTCzks95NkxTSnmC1h9-hPuH8DyABJUvriagaB0bhWXBlDUY_NtUOL0zEXemgJsHTAtlPekpuN5CS89e5Gg7az03s27gga86vUX8wkbFBGeo/s1600-h/july+6+2009+082.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjokxfJh-ceGj-fRmKCuVVon4XHY3kjS3GGTCzks95NkxTSnmC1h9-hPuH8DyABJUvriagaB0bhWXBlDUY_NtUOL0zEXemgJsHTAtlPekpuN5CS89e5Gg7az03s27gga86vUX8wkbFBGeo/s400/july+6+2009+082.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356550613476626594" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5MwWZNeYNzzsGb9vL_zdIB6dKMToQcJy17ZG_NP1oo2IxTKLebf62-UukZi_D58Lu-IXOib5LmipV7bfKw0F_iO3sV0yDeG97tIK4Mi7KUuP8jYfi5ZSRJi-6C35OKci7zXnCVHS9OE/s1600-h/july+6+2009+114.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj5MwWZNeYNzzsGb9vL_zdIB6dKMToQcJy17ZG_NP1oo2IxTKLebf62-UukZi_D58Lu-IXOib5LmipV7bfKw0F_iO3sV0yDeG97tIK4Mi7KUuP8jYfi5ZSRJi-6C35OKci7zXnCVHS9OE/s400/july+6+2009+114.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356550606918678722" /></a><br />Hurrah, I suppose. I've survived yet another near death experience. They'd rallied the family, even my parents' minister and aunts who were; waiting in the wings not on my account, but to catch my parents when they collapse with grief at the death of their eldest, seriously flawed daughter.<br /><br />Wasn't what happened, obviously. My sister says she's sick and tired of my dying all the time. Either do it or not so they all aren't constantly on the edge of their seats. <br /><br />Geesh I wear people out, mainly my best people. Shit.<br /><br />I got out to take a few photos the other day and literally fell into a bed of fossils. Fossils make me happy.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-79643464293977728952009-02-12T23:21:00.002-06:002009-02-12T23:38:54.419-06:00Breathless and swooning hearts in midamerica<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFvutCAB3FvFbCESE8CVNIjAToxSYphJusSKs1Ff2aBAnALPhar22Rstqqt1TjcgIGzTzKmKQzV0juKgWfqoroCPxo1Wp98UGLAoZ3k2QocKgfWeteE4pqhmplbB3T9pAxXM-j9UbfwVY/s1600-h/linda+and+lorebq.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 361px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFvutCAB3FvFbCESE8CVNIjAToxSYphJusSKs1Ff2aBAnALPhar22Rstqqt1TjcgIGzTzKmKQzV0juKgWfqoroCPxo1Wp98UGLAoZ3k2QocKgfWeteE4pqhmplbB3T9pAxXM-j9UbfwVY/s400/linda+and+lorebq.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302148915868040178" /></a><br />My breathing sounded like blues harmonica, with a staccato urgency to it. The been done wrong man gently urged me through the snow with oxygen, and I gasped eternal truths during the trip to the nearest ER. He hasn't voluntarily spent time with me in years, and our 24th anniversary went unnoticed by either of us. I still make him laugh. He makes me laugh. We want happiness for one another and know togetherness isn't always the recipe.<br /><br />The intellectual journalist with the wise and gentle heart I married now listens to books on tape as he drives a big rig cross country to keep the rent paid, having lost our house way too long ago. I'm a clever but useless partner. He doesn't care about anything but getting the bills paid and living up to his obligations.<br /><br />He was for the war. I was on the steering committee of the Instead of War Coalition.<br /><br />He left the hospital and drove through industrial ruins to the hub and headed up through Illinois. He got to Effingham when he had chest pain, pulled over and CALLED A FUCKING CAB! They medivaced him back to St. Louis, he'd had a minor heart attack (as if). He was here at least 12 hours before I knew about it because I finally called him and he had to tell me what happened. He didn't want me worrying.<br /><br />Effingham has earned its name in my book. He's a weird and callous, crusty old booger, but he's my crusty old booger and hero to my children. A cab???; Have I taught him nothing?Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-14166663866557495732009-01-01T08:02:00.003-06:002009-01-01T08:25:02.050-06:00WTF MotherKiller?So I've come out all international now. I used to be a drunk. And I went to AA and was still a drunk by their standards, though I mostly didn't do shit. That's not fair, and I don't care who you may be.<br /><br />A kindergartner could figure out what my classy liberal arts education couldn't prepare me for. That they're just fucking wrong. Once a drunk, always a drunk?<br /><br />Wrong.<br /><br />A disease?<br /><br />Wrong. If not, then the scientific model has to go as it's the only ailment for which the only "official" cure is religion. The courts back me on this one, too, so already just shut the fuck up about its being a spiritual, not religious, program. Their roots are culty feely Christiany gone bad. That it's become the American standard for treatment of addiction is more ludicrous than anything even Schizoid the Prez has come up with. We are fucking blind, and we do not want to see, at least mostly, most of the time, most of us. Thank justice that there is a bit of sophiticated thinking to be had on this point.<br /><br />It is the only way to have either/or sobriety and/or stability and/or life.<br /><br />Wrong. So wrong. So, so wrong. By its own stats, AA has a five (yes 5) percent population retention at one year. And I can guarantee you that's not the same as sober, happy, free, or anything other than a warm butt in a metal chair.<br /><br />It works if you work it.<br /><br />Wrong. Just because it works for a sweet and wondrous precious few says nothing about those steps. It says a lot about those sweet and wondrous precious few being ready to be done with being so nuts. Most folks have issues at one time or another with a substance and almost all get over it because it's time to get a life worth having. This is not a credit to anyone, and I wish we could put someone's good future into their present as much as anyone, but life is not that way. Sucks, doesn't it. Our lack of control over anyone else's interior life. But there you have it.<br /><br />My [fill blank] has been in AA {xx] years and it's changed their life.<br /><br />Lucky them. Lucky you. I have a lovely face, and lucky me. Luck. Luck. Fuck.<br /><br />AA is the source of life for people who attend, and saying otherwise is like shooting the jumper off a building.<br /><br />A tempting proposition for the truly lovely among us to shut the fuck up, no? Except that people who go to AA have a 29 percent suicide rate. That's because their guilt for trespassing is so enormously overwhelming they can't imagine the humilation of returning to that group with their rank stripped, a base rookie, consigned to the stupid corner until later notice. This happens. It is endemic. It is the primary damage of this program as I have experienced it. Utter humiliation is not good juju for the soul. You didn't work it, it's your fault, you're "constitutionally incapable" of being honest. WTF???<br /><br />I'm now so angry that i have to go calm down before I go on.<br /><br />More later.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-75159462142971071102009-01-01T07:05:00.005-06:002009-01-01T07:57:01.649-06:00Killing a mother is unforgiveable, so forgive me already. Please.So I' ve been so sick. Sick almost to death and it's largely my own damn fault for my love of a good smoke. Even now, with oxygen and a gasp to die for, I suck on these fuckers like the teat of life itself.<br /><br />I am a deeply flawed individual.<br /><br />But I have good days, too. <br /><br />So let me tell you what I think. <br /><br />I think people are largely mysterious, no matter how rational their self examination may seem. I've noted this outside my immediate gene pool, so I suspect it's not just me.<br /><br />I happen to be a particularly non-spiteful mystery, as humans go. But I'm not particularly holy at all, and love succumbing to temptation as much as a gay preacher with snakes in a drawer. And I mostly cop to it, so that's something.<br /><br />See how defensive I am from the get go? I'm defending myself against an assumed thought in your head, even as I write. I am so fucked unto the Lord or whatever that I begin with the reasons I'm worthy. Jeezus would say sheeyut.<br /><br />But I'm fun to have a beer with and am told I'm smart as they come. Not that it has made much difference.<br /><br />Smart folks can be so dumb. We think it's a virtue when it's just an adjective. That's unless we're crediting our own hard work, and I know that's mainly a lie. Mainly because when I've worked hardest, I've been my best, most transcendent self. But it's never lasted long enough for any righteous infinite jest, which is William James' definition of transcendent wisdom. I may be an iconoclast, but having read that book, I will adhere to its definitions, as is my right. So do not fuck with the James boys. There's no future in it.<br /><br />I'd love to live in a world in which my own transcendence delighted me constantly. Since I don't, I rely a lot on substances and such to maintain daily, a sin as big as there is, I'm told. And yet, on this New Years, I'm putting my wide foot down that this is not so bad if it keeps you going mostly without hurting others. That's of course excepting friends and family who love me. They can't help but hurt at my diminishing presence, and they mourn it more than I do, which is something.<br /><br />I am guilty as I am. I am guilty. I am. There it is. Feed as long as necessary. I am naked and flayed prostate before your judgment, and if you only knew, you'd know which line in this bit is the most central and agreed upon fact ever in the history of my life. Then you would come clean my house for me and love me for having taken this mantle so far so long. Or not.<br /><br />Me, I'm wondering on all my guilt and its value in a gold-based economy. Not fucking much. And I'm dying. Not today, not tomorrow, but before my time. So?<br /><br />So I have work to do that is different from other work I've done. I am selfish and narcissistic historically, yet I've lost real interest in my own life except as it is killing my family, mostly those three kids. Damnit. That I probably did it so, so long ago is just dawning on me. <br /><br />We all have to answer to something, and having given up the traditional subjects of devotion as unworkable in my world, there are those people I love that I wouldn't hurt if I could help it.<br /><br />And I wish I could help it. I'm a cipher. If I were my own judge, I would not be silent and sanguine, for killing a mother is an unforgiveable act. Yet I have to find a way to forgive myself so I can leave my children without a gaping maw where their ma used to be.<br /><br />They deserve as much high minded positive projection as my soul can deliver, and frankly, I do too.<br /><br />My smartness has finally revealed to me, ta-dah that the 25 years I spent in a cult was waaay bad. It hammered me from every direction that I was powerless in the face of my own evil nature, unchangeable in that stain, insane, incapable of rational thought, too smart for my own good, and destined to die a hideous death unless I adhered to their commandments. <br /><br />Understandably, this took some of my good juju away and kept me on a spiritual search that I only put on the shelf quite recently as impossible and indecent. All those years I sought strength in a soul-zapping death cult without even knowing it. Others have had different experiences, including my two most central menfolk. It was a rebellion I couldn't help and wanted not to have and couldn't live with or without. But, the truth will out.<br /><br />That I stayed says something about my fortitude, and my leaving says yet more. The demonic corruption of my best years?<br /><br />Alcoholics Anonymous.<br /><br />More later.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-73102875909171269702009-01-01T07:03:00.001-06:002009-01-01T07:05:23.876-06:00Caroline Kennedy, let's be reasonableMaybe it's because I remember her losing her daddy that preps me so well for a Senator Caroline Kennedy. I was only eight at the time and losing my dad was the worst thing I could imagine at that age.<br /><br />But I think that just makes me an empathetic human from an early age, not a knee jerk Camelotophile.<br /><br />Am I the only one a bit grated by the comparisons being made to other political dynasties? Hillary, Dubya, Jeb et al have so much more to answer for. Caroline Kennedy seems as close to a saint as I've witnessed in the public eye, though I fervently hope there's more to her story. Saints are ever so boring.<br /><br />Even so, no on is arguing her endeavors have been less than noble. She has not sought celebrity. She has gracefully and graciously worn the mantle of her birth without exploiting it for base purposes, which has got to take some kind of restraint I'm fairly sure I don't possess, and I think you probably don't neither. Say I'm wrong. <br /><br />That she has been awkward before the press of the press seems a plus for me. I'm sick of the savvy and yearn for the ideals of the heart put into action. Has Obama leached all our capacity for fine feeling for an individual? Perhaps.<br /><br />But as of this day, I see everything to love and nothing to genuinely suspect about Caroline Kennedy. That's my story and I'll stick to it as long as the facts back it. Isn't that what critical thinking is supposed to deliver? Geez folks, let's be smarter for once, from the get go.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-63094408211496648082009-01-01T06:59:00.002-06:002009-01-01T07:03:30.277-06:00Such Nice BoysProving yet again that point of view can be everything. Don't miss these men of true grit, even though theirs is aimed at our own.<br /><br /><div><object width="420" height="339"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x1gizg" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x1gizg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="339" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x1gizg">VICE Travel: Darra, Pakistan</a></b><br /><i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/Top-Notch112">Top-Notch112</a></i></div>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-53848714658374948932008-12-21T22:53:00.002-06:002008-12-21T23:02:48.015-06:00Need Inspiring? Generic Inspirational Speech PDQI grabbed this off of Phil Gerbyshak's Twitter feed. Phil's one of those unstoppable optimists I am drawn to, probably because unspottable optimism isn't one of my more obvious assets, I guess. He's the real deal,though. And that's why he's appealing: others try to wear this powerful personality like a trench coat,but it shows. But with Phil, it's the way he rolls.<br /><br />Here's a mashup of some 40 rile-the-masses speeches in just over two minutes,ammassed by Matthew Berlinke:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d6wRkzCW5qI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d6wRkzCW5qI&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />I can't say athis inspired me to do squat on a cold Sunday night, but it was entertaining. Thanks Phil.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-24378694415080384252008-12-19T19:13:00.001-06:002008-12-19T19:16:02.272-06:00A digital valium with a glass of wine, kind ofFriends, the world is a heavy place. The buoyancy of Obamahope has sunk under the weight of the extent of the criminal organization still in charge. <br /><br />I'm tired.<br /><br />I've been outraged for so long.And now, when we deserve a bit of lightness in our hearts, the news gets grimmer and grimmer.<br /><br />So, I read V<a href="http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/2007_Sept_Michelle_Obama/">ogue's feature on Michelle Obama </a>and it was a tonic to my soul, better than a glass of wine and a valium, not that I would know anything about anything like that.<br /><br />See if it helps you feel a bit brighter.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-92056762250061102332008-12-16T10:27:00.001-06:002008-12-16T10:32:18.919-06:00Boy Jesus discovers the truth about Santa<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEqobwVKblp1JRUaZBseF0xrtXLXRTVEScfNxEIlAlHCNIOFgV7VF2s5TQh5NlU_NmiN2KcFiKRnUfoKJ8rQQ2OIOUd5GIn4dDBDPS1-JtsHvbIjEpqH34wYJJ4mlcLMDa7ULByqjVyXM/s1600-h/jesus+santa.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 399px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEqobwVKblp1JRUaZBseF0xrtXLXRTVEScfNxEIlAlHCNIOFgV7VF2s5TQh5NlU_NmiN2KcFiKRnUfoKJ8rQQ2OIOUd5GIn4dDBDPS1-JtsHvbIjEpqH34wYJJ4mlcLMDa7ULByqjVyXM/s400/jesus+santa.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280426386137515906" /></a><br /><br />Thanks, <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/">TruthDig</a>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-90438189048698627662008-12-10T17:49:00.004-06:002008-12-10T17:55:43.703-06:00Gay marriage is about love and a seat at the family tableOur great national treasure boils it down to the essence and takes away Huckabee's gay marriage argument.<br /><br /><style type='text/css'>.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}</style><div class='cc_box' style='position:relative'><a href='http://www.comedycentral.com' target='_blank' style='display:inline; float:left; width:60px; height:31px;'><div class='cc_home' style='float:left; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 0px 0px 1px; width:60px; height:31px; background:url("http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-out.png");'></div></a><div style='font:bold 10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; float:left; width:299px; height:31px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 1px 0px 0px; overflow:hidden; color:#707070;'><div class='cc_show' style='position:relative; background-color:#e5e5e5;padding-left:3px; height:14px; padding-top:2px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/' target='_blank'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a><span style='position:absolute; top:2px; right:3px;'>M - Th 11p / 10c</span></div><div class='cc_title' style='font-size:11px; color:#868686; background-color:#f5f5f5; padding:3px; padding-top:1px; line-height:14px; height:21px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=213349&title=mike-huckabee-pt.-2' target='_blank'>Mike Huckabee Pt. 2</a></div></div><embed style='float:left; clear:left;' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:213349' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed><div class='cc_links' style='float:left; clear:left; width:358px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-top:0px; font:10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; color:#b9b9b9; background-color:#f5f5f5;'><div style='width:177px; float:left; padding-left:3px;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=166515&title=Barack-Obama-Pt.-1'>Barack Obama Interview</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=167938&title=John-McCain-Pt.-1'>John McCain Interview</a></div><div style='width:177px; float:left;'><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?searchterm=Sarah+Palin&searchtype=site&x=0&y=0'>Sarah Palin Video</a><br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?searchterm=indecision+2008&searchtype=site&x=0&y=0'>Funny Election Video</a></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div><div style='clear:both'></div></div>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-85339271868774848062008-12-07T17:36:00.002-06:002008-12-07T19:59:48.010-06:00The inevitability of mathematicsRemember when we yearned to live in a reality-based world? I'm maybe going a little soft on reality these days, but it's up to the grownups to behave like grownups. This is just the first part, the rest are easy to find.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/u5iFESMAU58&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/u5iFESMAU58&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-38713286486791065752008-12-02T20:14:00.003-06:002008-12-02T20:19:58.960-06:00Name this impressive obsessionI've been with the lovely folks at St. John's Mercy Hospital recovering from the vapors of having an election go my way.<br /><br />Which has me wondering what DSM category they'd put this particular obsession under. Is it animal or mechanical, and really, what goes on behind closed doors up to 20 times a day anyway? Not that there's anything wrong with that.<br /><br /><embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/2104873/very_smart_squirrel.swf" width="400" height="345" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed><br><font size = 1><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2104873/very_smart_squirrel/">Very Smart Squirrel</a> - <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/">More free videos are here</a></font>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-35424211717971329672008-11-21T18:24:00.003-06:002008-11-21T18:33:13.405-06:00Sarah Palin's Unntentional Comedy Amazes and DelightsNorm over at <a href="http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/">One Good Move</a>, posted a link to this bit of brilliance from <a href="http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=841">Language Log</a>. Years ago, I majored in Literature and Language, a bit of study which included an emphasis on linguistics. Perhaps that's why I belly laughed at this erudite commentary. Anyhoo, it brightened my day considerably, so I'll share it with you in full for your personal edification.<br /><br /><blockquote>Blurt and babble<br /><br />November 18, 2008 @ 1:18 pm · Filed by Geoffrey K. Pullum under Language and politics<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Mark struggles to maintain some sort of balance to counter the amateur linguistics we see in the press concerning the language used by political figures, even to the extent of trying to defend Sarah Palin's often incoherent public pronouncements. But I think she'll continue to outflank him. Here's a recent quote, from the Larry King show (on display in the Doonesbury site's "Say What?" feature over the last few days):<br /><br /> If there is anything that I can do in terms of assisting there and allowing the credence, the credibility that that great vocation, that cornerstone of our democracy called the press, if I can help build up that credibility in the press and allow the electorate to know that they can believe everything that is reported through the airwaves and through print, I want to be able to help.<br /><br />I'll grant you that credibility is a replacement, signalling a return to fix what she felt was a false start with credence; and that cornerstone is a replacement for another false start with vocation; and that if I can help is a third repair effort, restarting the whole passage that began with if there is anything that I can do in terms of assisting. And certainly, we all make at least some mistakes and repairs in our sentence planning, roughly of the same sort as these. But if I have understood the above 69-word utterance correctly, all Palin was trying to say was "I'd like to help build press credibility." That shouldn't be such a difficult thing for a journalism major to express orally after some experience in state politics.<br /><br />I have to confess that I don't think anybody who regularly engages in this sort of chaotic blurt-and-babble speech in interview situations can be regarded as suited to a position involving political leadership or executive responsibilities in the government of a democracy.<br /><br />I think being so utterly unable to explain what one wants to say is truly and reasonably regarded as a defect in one's qualifications for office — partly because being so inept at talking in a controlled and sensible way strongly suggests that there was no sensible thought back there, and partly because even if there were sensible thoughts back there somewhere, a leader needs to be more skilled at articulating them.<br /><br />Having a president who regularly spluttered and stumbled like this when speaking off the cuff is part of what made the past eight years so awful for those who would like to be proud of the USA and its leadership.<br /><br />It isn't primarily about Palin's politics: I cringe when I hear Democrats floundering to this extent too. Ted Kennedy has on occasion attained a degree of incoherence comparable to that of the Palin quote above (remember the classic Doonesbury strip: A verb, Senator, we need a verb!). I just think it means these people are underqualified for public life (albeit perhaps not vitiatingly so), and pointing that out is a legitimate criticism of a candidate's ability to do the job, just like presenting evidence of the candidate's venality or dishonesty would be.<br /><br />Well, I say it's not primarily about Palin's politics; but of course it soon would be if I were so foolish as to open the comments area on this post. But I (have you noticed this?) am not foolish. By the way, to fully understand the scholarly achievement that Mark's careful and dutifully unbiased analysis represents you really need to contrast it with something like (what Language Log reader Jonathan Lundell pointed out to me) Wonkette's remarks on Palin's "hellish, primordial shitheap of misplaced modifiers, abrupt switchings of tense, and sounds that simply are not words … And gerunds … so many gerunds in places that do not need gerunds" (she refers to what The Cambridge Grammar calls gerund-participles; a commenter called Capitol Hillbilly says pompously that "she doesn’t know the difference between a gerund and a garden variety participle", but in fact there isn't one). Wonkette does not have the same duty of scholarly care and linguistic exactitude as we do. They can be polemical. They are Wonkette. We are Language Log.<br /><br />And because we are, just one more linguistic comment. A commenter at Wonkette called Ivenson says: "Gave up when she said 'you guys are wanting to dissect the past'. Awful passive voice manner of speech, she looks terrified." Terrified she may be, and look. And awful her manner of speech perhaps is. But You guys are wanting to dissect the past does not contain any instance of the passive voice at all. As is customary in popular discussions of syntax, the passive voice is being blamed for things it isn't guilty of. Remarkably few educated Americans can accurately distinguish passive clauses from active ones. They use the term "passive" to allude to some extraordinarily vague and broad notion that has something to do with not being very specific, and in particular not being specific about agency and responsibility for actions. You can find this discussed in a large number of Language Log posts about the passive that are listed here.</blockquote>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-29786090158591899042008-11-16T17:51:00.001-06:002008-11-16T17:59:22.151-06:00MIT Logo in Origami -- Applied ScienceMy former business partner has a boy at MIT on full scholarship. I can only hope he's up to similar amazing endeavors.<br /><br />Prepare to be well and properly amazed. This is genius.<br /><br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" id="viddler" width="437" height="347"><param name="movie" value="http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/dde400cf"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <embed src="http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/dde400cf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" name="viddler" width="437" height="347"></embed></object>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-3530066231543889202008-11-16T16:09:00.001-06:002008-11-16T16:10:50.365-06:00Scott McLellan: Bush Authorized Outing PlameGeez, it never stops, does it?<br /><br /><object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K3kSMvVRnk0&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K3kSMvVRnk0&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-81179396942141841982008-11-13T15:00:00.003-06:002008-11-13T15:40:46.822-06:00The Obama Faith Interview: 2004<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqnZZ_dTWM8REbu_JF4PGuMy0OpZtu8E6YfXxP2xPUFo6upDlj2KEqMtuBNUpBXUiVH2RQLJiOfpsDPJhk1Fie7iuFjYrWsIp_1AHNTB5dY60hnGxhOzA0CU1p3ou6kiLdnUkJF0P2378/s1600-h/the+chicken+on+the+chicken+church.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 301px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqnZZ_dTWM8REbu_JF4PGuMy0OpZtu8E6YfXxP2xPUFo6upDlj2KEqMtuBNUpBXUiVH2RQLJiOfpsDPJhk1Fie7iuFjYrWsIp_1AHNTB5dY60hnGxhOzA0CU1p3ou6kiLdnUkJF0P2378/s400/the+chicken+on+the+chicken+church.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268252299542069730" border="0" /></a><br />The belief Obama describes is my own, sans black church services, yet I label myself an atheist. He's really quite Unitarian Universalist (the grandparents were Universalist before the merger). He's not a literalist and refuses to call himself "born again."<br /><br />Here's the <a href="http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/11/obamas-interview-with-cathleen.html">trancript </a>of the interview, printed in its entirety for he first time ever.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-45841429250901643832008-11-13T01:09:00.001-06:002008-11-13T01:10:50.988-06:00Rowan Atkinson: The Miracles of Jesus<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vt4MSQQ8LPo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vt4MSQQ8LPo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-84760052707514148652008-11-11T22:08:00.000-06:002008-11-11T22:09:11.887-06:00A New World<iframe height="339" width="425" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/27563785#27563785" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-10353440327792653932008-11-10T19:45:00.004-06:002008-11-10T23:01:00.831-06:00Obama Family ValuesThe Obama family. These videos remind me all over again why they're moving to Washington despite every naturally occurring disadvantage that can happen in one three-word name.<br /><br />Their natural affection is evident, as is their respect for one another. This cannot be faked. When Michelle Obama , talks about "this guy I married, whom I'm so proud of, first of all because he's a good guy," I believe her.<br /><br />There's a wonderful moment after she introduces Malia and Sasha Obama and their dad, "BARACK OBAMA!" then nothing happens for maybe 20 seconds. When they finally emerge, poor 10-year-old Malia is so painfully self-conscious about all this attention, that she speaks to my inner child, how about you?<br /><br />Little Sasha wears her happy kid beam, reveling in it all as she roams among her parents' long legs. Before going on, though, Dad's concern is his daughter's comfort, and he lets the crowd wait as he bends down, being sure to lower his mike, and whispers daddy magic that makes her smile her first genuine smile of the evening.<br /><br />How often do kids really come first like that?<br /><br />I'm newly reminded of the thrill of a candidate who, as his wife put it, will wake up every morning to make this a better place for all of our children, and will do everything he can to help life be not so hard for regular people.<br /><br />Think that ever occurred, really, to the Usurper?<br /><br />I'm including a third video. Stick with me here, because you'll wonder if I've gone all Harlequin on you. I would have chosen different music, and there would be no pink valentine frames with white script. I watched it through, ready for a wince that really never came.<br /><br />Image after image, their connection reminds me of the John Donne's poetic image of a mature and satisfying love he compares to twin compasses (think geometry) that circle widely, strongly and independently of each other, but when those twin orbits intersect, it's the most powerful and profound meeting of hearts and mind.<br /><br />It's not moon-June-spoon, gazing into lipid pools so often described as the ideal. When they look at each other, they're equals, a team. We catch their intimacy not because they have it one display, but because it is real. One look at what must have been Annie Lebowitz's photo of a the two, and you get it. They may be the first happy marriage since Truman.<br /><br />It's when they're looking in the same direction that their mirrored expressions made me cry before it was over.<br /><br />I'm sure I'm punch drunk from years of being forced to sustain outrage, but I believe all over again in the promise of this exceptional family. Like Malia said in their one and last family interview, it makes the kids feel good when their parents love each other. Me too, Malia. Me, too.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KHlhRleFbyg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KHlhRleFbyg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object><object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/W3adqFdVYhE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/W3adqFdVYhE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/VeUa6i74sqQ&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VeUa6i74sqQ&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-44128021606143235792008-11-08T17:42:00.003-06:002008-11-08T22:03:10.207-06:00More Dancing, Just Dance the Night Away<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S-mkR-KoPts&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S-mkR-KoPts&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />The Rambo Tango--Incredible<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M3PMCD7aMRI&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M3PMCD7aMRI&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Korean Modern dance<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=3688142"></a><br/><object width="425px" height="360px"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="movie" value="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=3688142,t=1,mt=video"><embed src="http://mediaservices.myspace.com/services/media/embed.aspx/m=3688142,t=1,mt=video" width="425" height="360" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><br /><br />Body Poppin'Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-30771438741750649442008-11-08T15:11:00.008-06:002008-11-08T16:24:03.729-06:00A Cultural Interlude: Dancing, Dancing, Dancing!<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">What is it with those Brits and pop culture? Frankly, I'd live and die there for the poshness of the accent alone. I feel quite at home and connected somehow.<br /><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 102, 51);"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Do try to stay focused, there are videos to watch in a minute. Did you take your Ritalin?</span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br />That said, I'm not so wild about everything Anglo. Their famed fish and chips are just hefty planks of globber best suited for absorbing grease. This grease then doubles in volume before vomiting on a quaint newspaper.<br /><br />Their syncopated system of "central" heating means never knowing a warm minute without a duvet and a water bottle.<br /><br />The exchange rate left me with 48 cents, two kids, and no connecting flight in Nashville. The delay was an act of God, they told the angry man who smelled like sweaty fish and chips, and was not covered within their rooming policy. 20 hours since breakfast and I broke my sacred rule of not crying near public transportation. All was well in the end. Their policy extended to mothers and their "babies."<br /><br />Where was I? Like, have you ever eaten an English Egg McMuffin? There's no tang, no hint of smoked anything--it's a poached egg on a soggy muffin with tasteless cheese for color. And mincemeat? A good mince should numb the gums from a surfeit of clove. I bought a dozen cute little pies for Christmas Day, and threw all but two away.<br /><br />But look at this pair, the "Cheeky Monkeys," singing and dancing to the communal delight of the British Isles. This is mince with no clove. </span></span></span><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8sNPwOEPlFw&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8sNPwOEPlFw&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />I'll just say it. British popular music is predictable, unevolved and banal. The obvious strain for cutesiness doesn't pall on their palate--no, they love all that saccharin ootsiness more at home on Lawrence Welk, may his memory be a blessing, than on anything contemporary. I wasn't charmed, were you?<br /><br />And Simon Cowell seems to have taken a palliative that made his heart grow nine times its size there in Whoville, UK, while simultaneously removing any faculty for critical thinking. It's about enough to make you puke, if the rick rack doesn't get you first. My what a mean lady I am.<br /><br /></span></span></span> <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:100%;">How did the island that gave us the Beatles, The Animals, The Yardbirds, Twiggy, Donovan, The Doors and Davey Jones have so slid down the bell curve? But what gives? And no, I don't consider the Stones a treasure but I love Elvis Costello and The Eurythmics.</span> I'd take a cold shower with Duran Duran to escape the techno/beat/pop sound of popular music over there now.</span></span><br /><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/1524755/the_boy_ridiculously_dances.swf" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="345"></embed><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /> <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1524755/the_boy_ridiculously_dances/">The Boy Ridiculously Dances - video powered by Metacafe</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Now, these are moves.</span></span><br /><br /><br /><embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/558931/walk_dancing.swf" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="345"></embed><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /> <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/558931/walk_dancing/">Walk Dancing - video powered by Metacafe</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">But then who knew from walk dancing? The prettiest footwork in video today.</span></span>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-55301307776367878902008-11-08T12:12:00.012-06:002008-11-09T10:56:08.097-06:00Dress me in chaps and call me hell bent for leather--Hope Part I<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4jJipw99GZHXBDhrpcM4wHMzgeWonGJ7TxvPasKcfVpbQ__k0R42rDQwYCoNtpj0cu3Sg0EFbNqS4fl8SpjLeOW1Z581nf17-p4DEslgJACwQv5nqEuSAbTyLz8JeUtv7JJKgukMkImU/s1600-h/downtown+glam.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 193px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4jJipw99GZHXBDhrpcM4wHMzgeWonGJ7TxvPasKcfVpbQ__k0R42rDQwYCoNtpj0cu3Sg0EFbNqS4fl8SpjLeOW1Z581nf17-p4DEslgJACwQv5nqEuSAbTyLz8JeUtv7JJKgukMkImU/s400/downtown+glam.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266369498192774482" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >March is the cruelest month. The taste of spring shows a little leg, but not enough to warm you like you need it most. Hope can be every bit as treacherous as the third month. If hope is a twig without a green fuse, and not made for lasting, it's kinder to offer none. I believe that.<br /><br />But then, I also think it's wrong to rescue someone trying to euthanise themselves--just who do you think you are to meddle with such intimate, personal decisions. Talk about pro-choice! But that's another day.<br /><br />Back to hope. Sometimes seemingly clever people can be thick as muggles. Exhibit A is audacity and hope just made a Reese's PB Cup in my brain, and they are greater than the sum of their parts.<br /><br />My tendency runs to the depressive. I don't like it, but I know how to do that life. Not well, but I get through. My two speeds are on and off, and my new experiment is to devote myself to the practical application of hope and optimism whenever I want to.<br /><br />Hope has potential to become the most radical and revolutionary way to take control of your life while also saying get your pious ass away from me, too. And no shit, this just appeared in my mind as if I created it from whole cloth. This is a choice.<br /><br />When Michelle Obama spoke to a group of African American women at the beginning of the campaign, their overriding concern was that Barack be shielded from the skinheaded Nazis you know just have to be out there with evil intentions in their black hearts.<br /><br />I had a friend with hokeyism is one of its worst forms. Anyway, she used to say, "I just know God didn't bring me this far to drop me on my head now," she'd exclaim without realizing God's dropping folks on their heads every day and every way imaginable.<br /><br />The danger of hope is the risk of dashing it. I'm doing my best to remember to consciously encourage and sustain it, Chia-like, at least through the holidays.<br /><br />Despair may often be more realistic, but is it liveable? Can you still remember to buy catfood when you're slogging through the slough of Despond (crack your <span style="font-style: italic;">Pilgrim's Progress, </span>friends, it is Sunday)? Or are the cats happier on your more hopeful trips to market? Are you a force for momentum, or do you stay up for the View and hide under the covers until Days comes on?<br /><br />I'm a charter member of the revolutionary, bring-it-here, </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >fuck-you-and-your-pretty-pony-too, society of smart ass misfits with opinions and a voice that carries. That entitles me to full formal regalia, so I'm dressing in</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" > chaps and breaking all the commandments in one sitting. I'll drink dirty martinis till Tuesday, sing some Edith Piaf in a bias cut beige glimmer of a gown that hangs perfectly and makes me look naked without genitalia.<br /><br />I will slap the floor with a purloined feather boa. And everything is gonna be okay because of hope, I hope.</span>Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-59740382572738803932008-11-08T11:00:00.000-06:002008-11-10T19:45:25.659-06:00Hope, Part II: The Fierce Urgency of Now<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ_18Zf1JN14tTF6M6HGKM-yUTrg3qvi4gMclep1K6GMsFAWqi5ttW8c8I2QBZpje_QOSelGMrQ8qeC3mgVghQMn81pox5YOo_iE_oZ5BwoFk2Fw0Dn8CB0ZhOhuT9dIqQ0_xi_JJzl6o/s1600-h/october+6+019.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ_18Zf1JN14tTF6M6HGKM-yUTrg3qvi4gMclep1K6GMsFAWqi5ttW8c8I2QBZpje_QOSelGMrQ8qeC3mgVghQMn81pox5YOo_iE_oZ5BwoFk2Fw0Dn8CB0ZhOhuT9dIqQ0_xi_JJzl6o/s320/october+6+019.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266691234645444178" border="0" /></a><br />Obama hadn't planned this run, this year, until he saw how our unity had been utterly and cynically gutted for political and financial gain. No one else was being a grown up, paying attention to the real problems and looking at ways to actually solve them. Political theater isn't public policy, especially in a nation whose fierce urgency needs a statesman, a visionary who still believes folks are folks with more in common than not, but a nation . . .<br /><br /><blockquote><ul><li>Whose fortune has flown away without feeding hungry babies,</li><li>Whose future is imperiled by internal combustion,<br /></li><li>Suffering the mere beginning of the most appalling financial collapse in a century,</li><li>Whose healthcare costs more and delivers less than other industrial countries,<br /></li><li>Whose schools diminish our children with meaningless, impossible tests and draconian consequences for failure,</li><li>In which science is suspect and creationism is as alive and well as it was in the Scopes Trial in the '30s</li><li>With years and years of untreated toxic waste ignored since Super Fund expired</li><li>Whose water and food are no longer reliably safe</li><li>Whose freshwater fish are not safe to eat</li><li>Having killed a million or more Iraqis and uncounted Afghanis, absolute innocents who just want to live like anybody else, but then we shocked and awed their world upside down,<br /></li><li>That tortures prisoners, leaving barely human shells usually found innocent</li><li>Where dissent has been selectively criminalized</li><li>Whose infrastructure is archaic and verging on catastrophic collapse</li><li>Whose veterans are treated appallingly, and with nakedly unconcerned ignorance for the long term cost of denying timely care</li><li>Where the wiretaps are a whirrin' without oversight, all over everywhere</li><li>That imprisons more people than any country in the world</li><li>With more arrests for non-violent marijuana offenses in 2007 than ever before to enrich the private prison systems by 35-50 bucks a day they often get the prisoner to pay,<br /></li><li>In which the land of the free and brave love their big guns to distraction, but still can't get over the gay</li><li>Whose Clean Air Act has been eroded</li><li>Where regulations once mandatory our now voluntary</li><li>Where it's hard to find justice, unless you have money, then you find boundless mercy</li><li>Whose people are sicker with each generation from a massive ecological/biological science experiment without supervision by even a mad scientist,<br /></li><li>Conspiring to protect the corrupt, whose whistleblower protection has been weakened</li><li>That outed a CIA operative specializing in securing loose nukes in the Middle East in a juvenile effort to pass on blatantly counterfeit intelligence as evidence for war</li><li>Sequestered in the Green Zone, Saddam's golden palace and a thorn in the Iraqi side that indicates we don't even get PR and we invented it,<br /></li><li>Guilty of obscenities at Abu Ghraib</li><li>That bombed Al Jazeera Baghdad in the first shock and awe</li><li>Guilty of a million or more Iraqi deaths,</li><li>Whose female soldiers face daily risk of sexual violence</li><li>Been robbed blind by sleight of hand mortgage bundles by amoral Wall Street concerns, gutting the treasury<br /></li><li>Whose children's college education out of reach for growing numbers</li><li>The Bible says loans should be forgiven every seven and seven hundred years, but the credit card industry has made debt relief impossible for most<br /></li><li>Losing our homes at record rates—stability, safety, and family rooms lost to parents who feel smaller and children who feel too old</li><li>For whom homelessness affects untold numbers of families, most of them children, with untold pain, shame, damage and despair</li></ul></blockquote><br /><br />Why would anyone feel anything as electric as hope in the face of that staggering, yet incomplete list? At some point while dogging along, I was physically overcome with gratitude for the character of this skinny guy from Hawaii, and Washington, and Illinois, and Kansas. The little hairs on my neck stood up with a tickle and I got goosebumps. Obama. A deliberate, mensa man, who is not separated by his smarts, but engaged by them.<br /><br />And with a wife who is among the most natively likeable, gracious, charming, intelligent, savvy political figures to emerge, in like, ever. That she is his touchstone reassures me, and the fact that they so obviously love each other assures me of their behind closed doors lovability. His children heal him and push him forward.<br /><br />I think we kind of surprised ourselves by being smart enough to give him the job. There was no other rational way to go, but when has that ever mattered?<br /><br />He is not rash or quick to anger. He is confident in his manhood and his intelligence, eliminating the ego endangering hangers on and sycophants. He actually has a good relationship with reality and actually seeks the truth. Who said you're entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. That's been backwards, but not for long.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3FGlhxyDl-82hIIeblxhf2AswzhxHyw2VWV5PYAkC7uj_BQlPluQ2CgD0KSG2Kut0vy9peUrlJix-aKdKbfLbVNuY9XgFotF7ELAiOCz9naAf90E8XfJgk6n3A_kw8NtJImGI9nMee8/s1600-h/sunset++in+January.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW3FGlhxyDl-82hIIeblxhf2AswzhxHyw2VWV5PYAkC7uj_BQlPluQ2CgD0KSG2Kut0vy9peUrlJix-aKdKbfLbVNuY9XgFotF7ELAiOCz9naAf90E8XfJgk6n3A_kw8NtJImGI9nMee8/s400/sunset++in+January.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266688075001096258" border="0" /></a><br /><br />His Kansas roots show most obviously in his practical application of political theory and human nature. I'm sure he will make me unhappy with compromises he'll make. But I won't suspect duplicity, and I won't have to watch from a free speech zone as our nation's strength and treasure is squandered across oceans and behind mahogany doors to enrich the enrichened enough already.<br /><br />I believe in good faith, critical thinking, and also that life doesn't begin until 1958 in Fairview, Mo. when I smelled the onions Momma was cutting and wanted her to take care of me and not make that stink.<br /><br />I pre-forgive him my inevitable disappointments because above all, he is human.<br />He touches us in that place that makes hope in the face of nearly comedic calamity on every horizon, a reasonable and prudent attitude.<br /><br />The only thing a fine education really sticks on you besides some letters, is the ability to learn on a wider plane than your uneducated self knew to consider. It's time for an elite thinker, with a good liberal arts education, degrees much maligned by have-nots and know nothings. Knowing history, philosophy, the dynamics of society in flux, mathematics, physics, culture and the written word means your panoramic view doesn't need to come from Walgreens.<br /><br />, prepares one to synthesize information from across disciplines to see the panorama shot. Obama's got vision, and if ever there was a transformative figure, it is he, and if anyone ever needed one, it is we.<br /><br />He has an astute and subtle mind, not the subtitled mind we've misunderestimated for too long.<br /><br />One thing I'm sure of, Obama will never taunt anyone shooting at our kids to "bring it on." He's incapable of a simpleton's bullying taunts.<br /><br />And he's pretty and can play basketball like Cassius Clay could box.<br /><br />His plan to amalgamate the intelligence, ambition and passion of an entire nation behind renewable energy that will have us all rising to the occasion.<br /><br />And while he backs faith-based programs, they're not Bush's bequest to the member rolls. His plan requires no religious test for participation at any point, either overt or covert.<br /><br />Religion has been government's expensive and embarrasing concubine for too long. Our beginnings are as purposefully secular as was ever imagined—it's why the country works at all.<br /><br />Isn't there a Constitution test in 8th grade anymore? It stuns me they continue to get away with this most basic misreading of the document.<br /><br />And, and, and, if there was no other evidence of his steady hand, the two-year campaign showed us an unflappable candidate. Consistent. Presidential. Thoughtful and with resolve untinged by unhingedness. Palin wrinkled her nose when she called him a "community organizer," but the Obama organization is now the stuff of political science gospel, and she's back shooting wolves in helicopters.<br /><br />More than my dear Dr. Dean's 50-state strategy, Obama's was nearly an every county strategy. He talked to the whole country, not just the, forgive me this awful expression, "low hanging fruit." The campaign didn't stay out of Mississippi because Obama is half African.<br /><br />Instead, they settled in and learned to love grits until their numbers buzzed with grassroots passion that cannot be bought at any price. As a nation, maybe we're just weary enough of our own collective cynicism to hear an ethos borne of idealism, and well tempered by reality. I, for one, discovered no embarrassment at having been inspired, enthralled and swept away by the only figure capable of pulling off half this shit. And I'm a crusty old broad.<br /><br />Contrast this positive force with the relentlessly misleading and mean advertising from the right, and it was finally just pathetic. The McCain message kept changing, the rhetoric became more shrill, ever more infused with outright lies and code words inciting bigotry and rage that was red meat to their obnoxious base, introducing a level of ugliness usually reserved for those we love.<br /><br />Twenty years writing advertising of every ilk left me with a reluctant skill at going for the jugular in a snappy headline, and three graphs. I was proud to see Obama avoid that manipulative soul-sucking model. His was the class act, while McCain's swan song rankled like the tinny piano of a class clown trying way too hard to be liked. If he never read Faust, surely McCain has seen Damn Yankees! Selling your soul never works out except in Coen Brothers movies, and that's if "working out" means going to work for the governor.<br /><br />In the meantime, Obama has made the world delight in the prospect that America might actually transcend the dark years of George the Usurper to use our power once again for good, not evil. Sometimes life hangs a louie on you, 2008 has been a lousy, lousy, horrible, hideous year, but it's a louie year. 2009 will be hideous, too, but we've got hope to tuck in our decollatage now.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313140165825708141.post-27545602794164706072008-11-07T18:44:00.005-06:002008-11-07T18:55:27.079-06:00When winning weighs so much . . . Obama<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRFjP22O9rjDNydOCqa54StnVgIUylD56Ik6C-FBvkOBzErdzwp3uHalejzpAZa3zCKde1mtS71M7scP4ElyaL3fe4ZlnIVKQmXzyVckNJPtOVwyN7qBqPNBWJa0q3mMGfyJNYbHSH5No/s1600-h/obama+wins.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 381px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRFjP22O9rjDNydOCqa54StnVgIUylD56Ik6C-FBvkOBzErdzwp3uHalejzpAZa3zCKde1mtS71M7scP4ElyaL3fe4ZlnIVKQmXzyVckNJPtOVwyN7qBqPNBWJa0q3mMGfyJNYbHSH5No/s400/obama+wins.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5266082481744865906" /></a><br />I've watched the jubilation with as many tears as any of us. I've felt hope surge as never before, and that's saying something, being a Clinton veteran from way back. But I wondered, what can I add to the deluge? What is it I see worthy of adding to the static?<br /><br />And then it came to me, and in all likelihood, it's nothing new, but Obama seems Lincolnesque in the gravity with which he takes office. Watch the <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/sets/72157608716313371/show/ ">flickr slide show </a>of his reactions to his victory. He's understated and proud, surely, but there's a weight there far away from the hoopla and hail-fellow-well-met we're looking for. You can see the weight of the reality he has inherited written on his face.<br /><br />If another president has faced a nation so in need, I can't name him.<br /><br />It seems now as if the presidency is more his calling and destiny than his one true wish in life.<br /><br />Am I alone? Am I too sober, or should I belly up to the obamabar? I feen for elation, yet I can't quite get there. There's that damn reality that has cautioned all who love these causes always feel. Damn reality--is he the man to transcend it? If I prayed, I'd pray. As it is, I hope and hope and hope.Jill Draperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09852414637936409281noreply@blogger.com0