It's In The Wrist, Doll

No wonder life sucks--it's run by sociopaths

2009-07-30T19:17:00.004-05:00

Most 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.

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.

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.

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.

In today's edition of AlterNet, this caught my attention:

It's Not Hard to Be a Job-Slashing, Pension-Grabbing CEO -- If You're a Sociopath

By Thom Hartmann, Smirking Chimp. Posted July 28, 2009.

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.

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."

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?"

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?

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.

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.

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?

Weak and way too feeble for a woman with my strong opinions

2009-07-09T14:33:00.004-05:00

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.

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.

Geesh I wear people out, mainly my best people. Shit.

I got out to take a few photos the other day and literally fell into a bed of fossils. Fossils make me happy.

Breathless and swooning hearts in midamerica

2009-02-12T23:21:00.002-06:00

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.

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.

He was for the war. I was on the steering committee of the Instead of War Coalition.

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.

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?

WTF MotherKiller?

2009-01-01T08:02:00.003-06:00

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.

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?

Wrong.

A disease?

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.

It is the only way to have either/or sobriety and/or stability and/or life.

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.

It works if you work it.

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.

My [fill blank] has been in AA {xx] years and it's changed their life.

Lucky them. Lucky you. I have a lovely face, and lucky me. Luck. Luck. Fuck.

AA is the source of life for people who attend, and saying otherwise is like shooting the jumper off a building.

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???

I'm now so angry that i have to go calm down before I go on.

More later.

Killing a mother is unforgiveable, so forgive me already. Please.

2009-01-01T07:05:00.005-06:00

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.

I am a deeply flawed individual.

But I have good days, too.

So let me tell you what I think.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

They deserve as much high minded positive projection as my soul can deliver, and frankly, I do too.

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.

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.

That I stayed says something about my fortitude, and my leaving says yet more. The demonic corruption of my best years?

Alcoholics Anonymous.

More later.

Caroline Kennedy, let's be reasonable

2009-01-01T07:03:00.001-06:00

Maybe 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.

But I think that just makes me an empathetic human from an early age, not a knee jerk Camelotophile.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Such Nice Boys

2009-01-01T06:59:00.002-06:00

Proving 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.

VICE Travel: Darra, Pakistan
by Top-Notch112

Need Inspiring? Generic Inspirational Speech PDQ

2008-12-21T22:53:00.002-06:00

I 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.

Here's a mashup of some 40 rile-the-masses speeches in just over two minutes,ammassed by Matthew Berlinke:

I can't say athis inspired me to do squat on a cold Sunday night, but it was entertaining. Thanks Phil.

A digital valium with a glass of wine, kind of

2008-12-19T19:13:00.001-06:00

Friends, 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.

I'm tired.

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.

So, I read Vogue's feature on Michelle Obama 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.

See if it helps you feel a bit brighter.

Boy Jesus discovers the truth about Santa

2008-12-16T10:27:00.001-06:00

Thanks, TruthDig

Gay marriage is about love and a seat at the family table

2008-12-10T17:49:00.004-06:00

Our great national treasure boils it down to the essence and takes away Huckabee's gay marriage argument.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

The inevitability of mathematics

2008-12-07T17:36:00.002-06:00

Remember 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.

Name this impressive obsession

2008-12-02T20:14:00.003-06:00

I've been with the lovely folks at St. John's Mercy Hospital recovering from the vapors of having an election go my way.

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.

Very Smart Squirrel - More free videos are here

Sarah Palin's Unntentional Comedy Amazes and Delights

2008-11-21T18:24:00.003-06:00

Norm over at One Good Move, posted a link to this bit of brilliance from Language Log. 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.

Blurt and babble

November 18, 2008 @ 1:18 pm · Filed by Geoffrey K. Pullum under Language and politics

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):

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

MIT Logo in Origami -- Applied Science

2008-11-16T17:51:00.001-06:00

My former business partner has a boy at MIT on full scholarship. I can only hope he's up to similar amazing endeavors.

Prepare to be well and properly amazed. This is genius.

Scott McLellan: Bush Authorized Outing Plame

2008-11-16T16:09:00.001-06:00

Geez, it never stops, does it?

The Obama Faith Interview: 2004

2008-11-13T15:00:00.003-06:00

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."

Here's the trancript of the interview, printed in its entirety for he first time ever.

Rowan Atkinson: The Miracles of Jesus

2008-11-13T01:09:00.001-06:00

A New World

2008-11-11T22:08:00.000-06:00

Obama Family Values

2008-11-10T19:45:00.004-06:00

The 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.

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.

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?

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.

How often do kids really come first like that?

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.

Think that ever occurred, really, to the Usurper?

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.

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.

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.

It's when they're looking in the same direction that their mirrored expressions made me cry before it was over.

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.

More Dancing, Just Dance the Night Away

2008-11-08T17:42:00.003-06:00

The Rambo Tango--Incredible

Korean Modern dance

Body Poppin'

A Cultural Interlude: Dancing, Dancing, Dancing!

2008-11-08T15:11:00.008-06:00

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.

Do try to stay focused, there are videos to watch in a minute. Did you take your Ritalin?

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.

Their syncopated system of "central" heating means never knowing a warm minute without a duvet and a water bottle.

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."

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.

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.

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?

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.

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. I'd take a cold shower with Duran Duran to escape the techno/beat/pop sound of popular music over there now.

The Boy Ridiculously Dances - video powered by Metacafe

Now, these are moves.

Walk Dancing - video powered by Metacafe

But then who knew from walk dancing? The prettiest footwork in video today.

Dress me in chaps and call me hell bent for leather--Hope Part I

2008-11-08T12:12:00.012-06:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Pilgrim's Progress, 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?

I'm a charter member of the revolutionary, bring-it-here, 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 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.

I will slap the floor with a purloined feather boa. And everything is gonna be okay because of hope, I hope.

Hope, Part II: The Fierce Urgency of Now

2008-11-08T11:00:00.000-06:00

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 . . .

Whose fortune has flown away without feeding hungry babies,
Whose future is imperiled by internal combustion,
Suffering the mere beginning of the most appalling financial collapse in a century,
Whose healthcare costs more and delivers less than other industrial countries,
Whose schools diminish our children with meaningless, impossible tests and draconian consequences for failure,
In which science is suspect and creationism is as alive and well as it was in the Scopes Trial in the '30s
With years and years of untreated toxic waste ignored since Super Fund expired
Whose water and food are no longer reliably safe
Whose freshwater fish are not safe to eat
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,
That tortures prisoners, leaving barely human shells usually found innocent
Where dissent has been selectively criminalized
Whose infrastructure is archaic and verging on catastrophic collapse
Whose veterans are treated appallingly, and with nakedly unconcerned ignorance for the long term cost of denying timely care
Where the wiretaps are a whirrin' without oversight, all over everywhere
That imprisons more people than any country in the world
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,
In which the land of the free and brave love their big guns to distraction, but still can't get over the gay
Whose Clean Air Act has been eroded
Where regulations once mandatory our now voluntary
Where it's hard to find justice, unless you have money, then you find boundless mercy
Whose people are sicker with each generation from a massive ecological/biological science experiment without supervision by even a mad scientist,
Conspiring to protect the corrupt, whose whistleblower protection has been weakened
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
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,
Guilty of obscenities at Abu Ghraib
That bombed Al Jazeera Baghdad in the first shock and awe
Guilty of a million or more Iraqi deaths,
Whose female soldiers face daily risk of sexual violence
Been robbed blind by sleight of hand mortgage bundles by amoral Wall Street concerns, gutting the treasury
Whose children's college education out of reach for growing numbers
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
Losing our homes at record rates—stability, safety, and family rooms lost to parents who feel smaller and children who feel too old
For whom homelessness affects untold numbers of families, most of them children, with untold pain, shame, damage and despair

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

I pre-forgive him my inevitable disappointments because above all, he is human.
He touches us in that place that makes hope in the face of nearly comedic calamity on every horizon, a reasonable and prudent attitude.

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.

, 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.

He has an astute and subtle mind, not the subtitled mind we've misunderestimated for too long.

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.

And he's pretty and can play basketball like Cassius Clay could box.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When winning weighs so much . . . Obama

2008-11-07T18:44:00.005-06:00

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?

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 flickr slide show 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.

If another president has faced a nation so in need, I can't name him.

It seems now as if the presidency is more his calling and destiny than his one true wish in life.

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.

Huzzah

2008-11-06T18:41:00.005-06:00

I've been sick and unable to fully take part in the wonder of an Obama win, so let this be my enormous HUzzaH!

We sleep well tonight.

2008-11-06T18:37:00.000-06:00

Rachel Maddow and Voting

2008-11-03T15:24:00.003-06:00

New York Magazine has a wonderful feature on Rachel Maddow, the least affected, sanest political commentator this great nation has, in my humble opinion.

Her ability to remain civil in the face of political argument is one I myself could well study. For too long, we've been divided along irreducible fault lines. That may well be a function of the issues dividing us, ones that will never be solved because they go too fundamentally to our basic world view. Issues like gay marriage and abortion, gun control for rural voters vs. gun control in urban areas--these are issues that will never be solved completely. Why then should we spend our political breath arguing them while the country goes down the tubes? Why can't we civilly agree to disagree and get to work on what we can change?

That's the message of Rachel Maddow. That's Barack Obama's message, too. That may be while bookies give him 90 percent odds of winning tomorrow.

I voted via absentee ballot--one advantage of my disabled status is the freedom from standing line at Edgar Road School. At the same time, I miss out on the camaraderie and the chills up my spine I've gotten since casting my first vote for Jimmy Carter.

But I get to see my children do it, and wish another six months on their age so they could do it. That's something. My two voters as children, and their mother with a perm (good gawd).

Evangelicals and Rural Americans are Breaking Big for Obama

2008-11-02T01:34:00.003-05:00

Could it be a reverse Bradley Effect?

The Democrats lost the South in the 60s in a sea change response to civil rights legislation, or so it's been said. Bush may be doing for the South what Democrats could never have pulled off. Worth a good reading.

From Alternet.

There's clearly a new political landscape forming in the U.S. That's what the polls are telling us. It's not just that the first major-party black candidate for President is leading by significant margins in the national polls; it's not just that North Dakota, a state George W. Bush won in 2004 by 64%, is believed to be "in play"; it's not just that Virginia which, like North Dakota, was last carried by a Democrat in the sweep year of 1964, is, according to the most recent Washington Post poll and others, in the Obama camp by at least 8 points, or that he's leading in a remarkable number of states Bush took in 2004, or even that Democratic Senate and House candidates are making a run of it in previously ridiculous places.
Consider, instead, three recent polls in the context of the Bush years. Obama and McCain are now in a "statistical dead heat" among born-again evangelicals, those Rovian foot soldiers of two successful Bush elections, according to a recent survey; and the same seems to be true in Sarah Palin's "real America," those rural and small town areas she's praised to the skies. According to a poll commissioned by the Center for Rural Strategies, in those areas which Bush won in 2004 by 53%-41%, Obama now holds a statistically insignificant one point lead. To complete this little trifecta, Gallup has just released a poll showing that Jews are now likely to vote for Obama by a more than 3 to 1 majority (74% to 22%).

Sarah Palin gets p*wned by Sarcosie imposter--brilliantly hilarious

2008-11-01T21:30:00.004-05:00

Palin gets p*wned. A prank call extraordinaire. They really get her going in this brilliant scheme. Prime Minister of Quebec? Hunting wolves from helicopters? It's all here--don't miss it. I especially love the way she says, "Hellowww!" like a Burlesque queen.

Rat Fink Authoritarian Conservatives: McCain/Palin Continue Hinky Tradition

2008-11-01T19:44:00.006-05:00

John Dean hit upon the soul of the right wing when he defined the authoritarian impulse driving their world view in his book, Conservatives Without Conscience.

Here, he writes about how the McCain/Palin ticket fits the authoritarian mindset with characteristic dishonesty, secrecy and a seemingly free pass to masquerade insinuation and twisty words as the hallmarks of their insight.

masquerading specious arguments as insight, secrecy, stunning dishonesty and an impulse to rule rather than govern.

Republicans rule, rather than govern, when they are in power by imposing their authoritarian conservative philosophy on everyone, as their answer for everything. This works for them because their interest is in power, and in what it can do for those who think as they do. Ruling, of course, must be distinguished from governing, which is a more nuanced process that entails give-and-take and the kind of compromises that are often necessary to find a consensus and solutions that will best serve the interests of all Americans.
Republicans' authoritarian rule can also be characterized by its striking incivility and intolerance toward those who do not view the world as Republicans do. Their insufferable attitude is not dangerous in itself, but it is employed to accomplish what they want, which it to take care of themselves and those who work to keep them in power.
Authoritarian conservatives are primarily anti-government, except where they believe the government can be useful to impose moral or social order (for example, with respect to matters like abortion, prayer in schools, or prohibiting sexually-explicit information from public view). Similarly, Republicans' limited-government attitude does not apply regarding national security, where they feel there can never be too much government activity - nor are the rights and liberties of individuals respected when national security is involved. Authoritarian Republicans do oppose the government interfering with markets and the economy, however -- and generally oppose the government's doing anything to help anyone they feel should be able to help themselves.
In my book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches, I set forth the facts regarding the consequences of the Republicans' controlling government for too many years. No Republican -- nor anyone else, for that matter -- has refuted these facts, and for good reason: They are irrefutable.
The McCain/Palin Ticket Perfectly Fits the Authoritarian Conservative Mold
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican candidates, have shown themselves to be unapologetic and archetypical authoritarian conservatives. Indeed, their campaign has warmed the hearts of fellow authoritarians, who applaud them for their negativity, nastiness, and dishonest ploys and only criticize them for not offering more of the same.

Check out Alternet for the rest of the article.

What happens when pumpkins drink too much?

2008-11-01T16:00:00.002-05:00

Change he can believe in

2008-10-31T20:00:00.006-05:00

This is my son, Jack. At 17, he's had Type 1 diabetes since he was eight and it is truly a BFD.

Being 17, Jack tends to avoid talking politics with me for fear I'll get passionate or something.

I'm known to do that.

Insert sentence about apples and trees here, because this afternoon, I heard him holding forth quite eloquently on one critical reason Obama must win: universal coverage (which the plan isn't, but it's a start) and coverage of people with preexisting conditions.

In the past few years, we've gone without insurance for maybe nine months. Our local pharmacies took a greater share of our income than any other line item.

Jack was paying attention. He said, "If I don't get a job with insurance, I'm screwed. Insulin and supplies runs about $500 a month, so if you're not really rich, you're screwed. I'll die without insulin. That's fucked up."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we got our open enrollment forms for next year. The benefits are punier and the premium is higher. We're already paying five times as much as we did just four years ago. My husband raised the possibility of changing jobs if it was too high as we can barely afoord it now. That's fucked up.

If it weren't for company sponsored insurance, Jack and I wouldn't have insurance. We both have chronic diseases and we discovered there's not an insurance company in the world willing to write a policy for either one of us at any price. The only alternative to private insurance is Medicaid, and the rolls have already been cut to the point where the average person who lost coverage in Republican-dominated Missouri was a single mom with two kids, making $11,000 a year. That's fucked up, too.

I will take to the streets in revolution if there's an electoral repeat of the last two presidential elections.

Hockey Mama for Obama

2008-10-31T19:56:00.002-05:00

This might be a Webster hockey mom, wearing a Blues jersey and all, and we're one of only a few communities with a hockey rink. Anyway, this is from my 17th century cousin again. She's a treasure trove.

Relief for the politically saturated: Colbert dances to Prince

2008-10-31T17:08:00.001-05:00

Stephen Colbert:

Colbert's Prince Dance
Uploaded by tailgator13

Barack Obama, Religion and Government

2008-10-31T11:20:00.003-05:00

A reasoned case for the separation of church and state. Imagine having a president who makes sense instead of sound bites.

FiveThirtyEight: The Pollsters With Heart and Soul

2008-10-29T16:56:00.007-05:00

Sean Quinn, one of our most brilliant young pollsters at FiveThirtyEight describes the early voting scene in Raleigh, N.C. with such heart and genuine appreciation for the historic gravitas of this election. Go read the whole thing, but the following bit got me where I live.

. . . There is something stirring in America.

Back at the rally, after the march had left MLK Gardens, I'd gone back for the car while Brett took photos, and I spotted a very old black man in a sharp Sunday suit walking slowly at the very back of the huge march. He hadn't yet arrived at the voting center, and I decided to find him when I got back.

I wanted to go talk to him, to ask him what this moment meant to him. He was a guy who you take one glance at, and know, that guy's seen it all. I wanted a quote. I had my journalist hat on. I thought, this will be great.

So when I got back to the voting location with the car, I went to find him in the line. Eventually I spotted him, and was ready to walk up the few feet between us and introduce myself when I stopped in my tracks.

A young black boy, no more than eight years old, walked up to this man, who was at least eighty. The boy offered the man a sticker, probably an "I Voted" sticker, but I couldn't see. The man took the sticker and paused. Silently, he looked down at the boy, who was looking back up at the man. The man put his hand gently on the boy's head, and I saw his eyes glisten.

I didn't ask the man for a quote. I didn't need to. I walked over by myself, behind the community center, and I sat down on a bench next to the track, and wept.

Me too. Me too.

Google and Stat Counter

2008-10-29T15:28:00.001-05:00

Some sweet soul searched "she's too wristy" and wound up here.

There's no one as Irish as Barack Obama.

2008-10-29T15:15:00.004-05:00

I met my cousin Kerry through genealogy, we have the same 17th century grandparents and you can't tell us apart. I'm lying again.

Anyway, she's from from San Francisco, where they know about things. This ought to persuade anyone sitting on the fence, doncha think?

The Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys give you permission to add extra verses.

Some people just break rules for no reason at all.

2008-10-29T08:17:00.001-05:00

Amy Sedaris on feminine hygiene

2008-10-29T06:54:00.003-05:00

Although it's basic cable, this is fairly graphic. Not for the easily shocked, and maybe not safe for work. Not only is it funny as hell, but I liked the symmetry of the siblings side by side..

Undecided voters: which is it? Chicken or a platter of shit with bits of broken glass? David Sedaris, of course

2008-10-28T23:10:00.002-05:00

Commentary from one of the finest wry minds I've seen working the public sector, David Sedaris, in the New Yorker.

Measures Already Taken to Suspend Constitutional Rights

2008-10-28T16:21:00.003-05:00

Can this tide be turned? This video lays it out quite succinctly and illustrates what Frank Paynter and I were discussing a while back on his blog and mine, too.

When has such a body of maneuvering made this much unconstitutional action possible? And why would it have been put in place were it not to be used? Even at this late date, I wonder.

Skip the light fandango with me tonight

2008-10-27T20:41:00.003-05:00

Procol Harem:

Goldwater Ad--In your heart you know he's right

2008-10-27T16:58:00.000-05:00

Slouching Toward Bethlehem

2008-10-27T15:45:00.004-05:00

I've thought of the poem often these past few years, having been impressed by its black insistent predictions as an undergrad. I do feel like madness has been loosed on the world in the form of magical thinking coupled with greed and corruption. The best lack conviction and the worst have been full of passionate intensity.

Scholarly note: I was taught that the gyre was a 2,000 year epoch, and the epoch Yeats refers to is the era of Christianity, not that you'd really know it. Bloody second coming is what the radical right would just love.

Here's the poem in its entirety:

The Second Coming
by W.B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert.

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Krugman relates it to our fine mess in the markets:

The Widening Gyre

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: October 26, 2008
Economic data rarely inspire poetic thoughts. But as I was contemplating the latest set of numbers, I realized that I had William Butler Yeats running through my head: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.”

Skinheads, "Jewish Agency," Here's Sarah and Spiritual Warfare

2008-10-27T15:02:00.003-05:00

ATF Disrupts Skinhead Plot to Assassin Obama and 102 high school kids.

Ms. Palin refers to the Israeli Embassy as the "Jewish Agency."

Hollywood eyeing Palin as host of her own talk television show

Palin's brand of spiritual warfare-
Its adherents believe that demonic forces can colonize specific geographic areas and individuals, and that “spiritual warriors” must “battle” them to assert God’s control, using prayer and evangelism. The movement’s fixation on demons, its aggressiveness and its leaders’ claims to exalted spiritual authority have troubled even some Pentecostal Christians.

Webster Groves is leaving the Republican Party--Bush's Legacy

2008-10-25T19:33:00.000-05:00

"The Queen of the Suburbs."

Even City Hall looks straight out of Central Casting.

Webster Groves Who?

Welcome to my hometown. It is so singularly itself that in 1966 , CBS did a documentary called, "16 in Webster Groves." It was the year we moved to a modest American Dream on a teacher's salary, and I was nine years old. I had my own bedroom for the first time, it was pink, there was satin involved. Frankly, I couldn't wait to be sixteen in Webster Groves.

The community was pained by the documentary. They were outraged at the way their children had been depicted as superficial , culturally incoherent, avaricious, small-minded, racist and perhaps most disturbing, way down deep, the kids were shallow. No angst aside from growing up and being just like their folks.

Those kiddoes didn't "show" well, it turned out. It took a few years for existential angst to hit the 63119. Most of that original crew have grown up to be just like anyone: just as out to lunch, image obsessed and dysfunctional or not.

But having been bred by Republicans, and disciplined by authoritarians, lines were toed and bales were lifted with frightening regularity--while they were being watched, of course, and that was a lot less often than kids get watched today. Benign neglect is the best kind. Their parents never, ever, ever knew. And never knew they never knew.

Surrounded by beauty.

These children were the me-generation whose every whim was attended to strictly. They were rotten to the core when given a chance, and to this day, need little encouragement to wax incessantly about their teen years. A recent study showed our teen years retain more permanence in our memories than other times of life, and St. Louis has been on to that for a long time.

St. Louis is the place where locals size you up socially by asking where you went to high school. In the 314 area code, "hoosier" is an insulting term for a redneck lowlife. Who knew anything about Indiana?

We eat Imo's Pizza, Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard and toasted ravioli. Add a few beloved teams, the high school question, rinse and repeat. That's St. Louis. Webster Groves is mostly an scenic place to live the St. Louis life. We're as hoosier as anybody, but we know enough to hide it.

Webster has always been a Republican stronghold, and as a child whose parents campaigned for McCarthy in '68, I honed debating skills that serve me to this day. But it was a place whose society was essentially stable, the "fundamentals" were good, and some things still hadn't been questioned. CBS was disappointed to learn these kids just wanted to grow up and be rich.

These were WASPish, country-club white folks who said they loved Sammy Davis Jr., Charlotte Peters, cocktails and foursomes of bridge at Algonquin until they died of cirrhosis of the liver still smelling like Patou's Joy.

Block after block of well-kept gardens and fresh paint, but the families inside are just as screwy as everybody's, many are terrible housekeepers with terrible animals. One I know for sure is full of dirty diapers from their diaper service. But from the outside, it's all good. They just consider appearances important.

Within a short time, though, things changed out there where people could see it. Their kids grew their bangs out until they covered eyes and caused arguments. My best friend had sex at 13. I had purple microdot at 13. If only CBS had come back during MY adolescence. Stories would be told.

Change was everywhere. Webster College went from all girls and nuns to a make-your-own-gravy tangle of coed sex, chemical experimentation and protest. There was little bathing and less shaving. And that's how they liked it.

The area's earliest and most famous head shop opened up just down the street in Old Orchard. The Spectrum was a magnet for the entire counter culture in the bi-state area. I still can't smell patchouli without thinking of those psychedelic black light posters I never had money to buy.

My childhood neighbor up the street, Edna Maude, (of course we still believe in family names), spearheaded a group mural, painted by hippies and freaks, on the parking lot side of the local Velvet Freeze. She and her husband have since made their fortune selling tanning beds. They're also evangelical right wingers, which causes Edna Maude's parents no end of pain. No matter what you do, sometimes it isn't enough.

The high school had a courtyard for smoking and we did. We inhaled. Prodigiously.

I give you this background to provide context for the sea change taking place right here in Skippy Groves. Our local free paper, The Webster-Kirkwood Times, has an energetic corps of articulate letter writers. I've made my living by writing, yet have submitted many lovely letters that went unpublished because the competition was better. In fact, the paper devotes two whole spreads to letters to the editor every week.

Last week's Webster-Kirkwood Times printed not one endorsement for McCain, because none had been received.

Around town, Obama signs outnumber McCain's at least 2:1. I don't know anyone voting for McCain, which is my privilege at my age, but still.

I guess we can thank George W. Bush for that. What a perfectly tortured back-handed legacy to be responsible for having delivered our forlorn country. It's been pillaged of its soul, without posse comitatus, without habeus corpus, without Geneva Conventions, owner of two intractable wars, our bankrupt, spy-infested union has been war mongered and privately profiteered past recognition. We misunderestimated George.

And now, as it looks hopeful that Obama will win the presidency, we hear him cautioning us that it won't be easy. It will take time. It will take all of us.

Nice trick they've pulled on us, return the mangled remains of the body politic to the opposition party, then you can blame them for not fixing it quickly enough, or in the right fashion, or anything they think up. Their time in the shadows will no doubt be spent gaining strength like Voldemort. If our coffers are ever full again, they'll be back. Had he set out to ruin a country, he couldn't have done a better job because he's as incompetent as buttered toast.

This has become so obvious that lifelong Republicans are voting for Obama. One thing Webster schools taught well was Constitution.

A dear friend, from a long line of classy Republicans, made the comment in 2003 that if W invaded Iraq, we'd never elect another Republican president.

I'm just sayin'.

Creationists Declare War on the Brain

2008-10-25T17:31:00.003-05:00

Mind Hacks has a great post about creationists' excitement over their latest argument for the soul. It runs something like this: because we can't explain every aspect of the brain through neuroscience, some portion must be outside the natural world. Science isn't too worried.

Wasssssup?

2008-10-24T17:07:00.000-05:00

Times have changed. Good work.

Rives, again, spinning Brownesque webs of time and tempo

2008-10-24T14:07:00.002-05:00

This guy is brilliant. Rives:

Rives Ramble Robusto

2008-10-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

This made me smile a rainbow and half a pony.

Enjoy.

46-year old baby calcified, never born

2008-10-24T13:48:00.001-05:00

Holy crap.

James Trout is a Good Man to Put in Charge: He Brings People Together and Sends them off packing to work tirelessly for peace and justice.

2008-10-22T09:19:00.006-05:00

Here's my buddy Jim Trout. He's running for State Senate in a district that has likely never elected a Democrat. I don't know that, but having grown up here, it's a fairly safe assumption.

Frank Popper, the award winning documentarian, has created this short film about Jim:

The thing that inspires me about Jim is bigger than his fine mind, his tireless energy, or his command of the facts and personalities at work. It's not his lone wolf court case to reinstate campaign donor limits in Missouri, it's not his command and commitment to green construction and renewable energy, and it's not in the way he treats his boys, eminent domain legislation, or his fun girlfriend. It's his basic goodness and heart.

As some of you know, I've been dealing with a disease that will one day take me out feet first. When all this was developing, I was writing for Jim--perhaps NOT writing for Jim is the more apt phrase. This hole in the team had to be filled, and they kept waiting for me to step up and get it done. He gave me every chance to do so until it became apparent to us all that I wasn't thinking or writing worth a hoot.

When we spoke, though, rather than nailing me to the wall about how I'd let him down, he sincerely asked how I was doing, anxious for all the details sick people love to dwell on. He took time he didn't have to talk to someone definitely not helping him at the moment. But that's how he is about everything. It's always about people. It's always about good grace, judgment, justice and doing things better than before.

Jim's opponent, Eric Schmitt, seems to have big bucks (Republicans love NO campaign finance limits so much they made a new law getting rid of them all over again!). The attorney has risen as far as local alderman, vaguely promises to bring business to Missouri, attend to healthcare and fix the "Hold Harmless" provision that gyps suburban school districts out of all kinds of money and is central to our property tax dilemma.

Never mind that he's never pushed through legislation, doesn't know the players in Jefferson City and the labarynthine process of gaining consensus and getting others on your band wagon to shake things up. That he's chosen to tackle "Hold Harmless" is as indicative of his inexperience as anything. It's a bad idea that will likely be with us forever as it's existence creates the financial backbone most rural school districts depend upon, and there are a lot more rural legislators than urban/suburban.

Mr. Schmitt is also distancing himself from Matt Blunt's slimy and opportunistic M.O. with its ethics-impaired who have run amock these last four years. But who will he caucus with?The same ones who gave license offices to cronies, cut 100,000 from Medicare and other things that served the legislators more than their constituency. Sen. Jeff Smith told me that the average person thrown off Medicare by Republicans is a single mom with two kids making about $11,000 a year. As lily white as he may be now, once Eric starts caucusing with these characters, how long before he joins the reelection club and loses his moral center?

While guilt by association can be a straw man, I thought it interesting that Eric Schmitt's name falls right under anti-feminist pariah, Phyllis Schlafley, in a Republican attorney's association list of members.

Other than that, he's got an agenda that isn't offensive at least. Well, huzzah Eric. You're not an evil doer. But if you want to get someone in Jeff City with the cojones to get these issues addressed for our district, vote Trout, Nov. 4.

Jim is an accidental politician whose experience poises him to tackle a wide range of important issues with the clarity of thought to make a difference.

Eric? Not so much, but then, his agenda is less ambitious than Jim's. How big you dare to dream is related to what issues you tackle. Jim's background will make this a big job. Eric's takes a nice picture, though.

A note on the video: this is our famous and award-winning local documentary maker, Frank Popper. He received worldwide acclaim for his 2006 film about Jeff Smith's uplifting campaign for Gephardt's seat against Russ Carnahan, Missouri's brand name boy. "Can Mr. Smith Get To Washington Anymore?" is a tonic to anyone wondering if grassroots efforts are still strong enough to get things done.

Frank, Sen. Jeff Smith and Jim Trout--of a piece.

OBAMA Draws LARGEST CROWD in US HISTORY in St. Louis, my hometown

2008-10-18T16:35:00.007-05:00

Today, in St. Louis, Mo., a record breaking crowd of 100,000 gathered to hear Barack Obama speak. That's econd only to the 200,000 people who turned out for him in Berlin, Germany, and more than the 80,000 at his Democratic National Convention speech—this, inin a state that John Kerry had pulled out of at this point four years ago.

Looks like Missouri's moving from purple to blue--my peeps--let's show folks how it's done.

There has been a new birdsong on the air, a free memory stored in the water, or the scent of good will. Whatever it is, it's spreading, and today it brought 100,000 St. Louisans, grumpy, worn out, zoysia grass growers to take a beautiful Saturday morning to stand under the Arch. Obama.

Why people came?
video from the post-dispatch blogger.

Heard of Rednecks for Obama? They were there.

I lived in Rolla. For a bit in the late 70s. In a turquoise, white and rusted trailer, with space age pretensions. Orange shag carpet? A baby, a husband/student/musician, and the weight of the world on my shoulders. There's always hope.

Meet a Black Person

2008-10-17T20:39:00.001-05:00

Meet a Black Person from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo.

Republicans for Obama

2008-10-14T11:12:00.000-05:00

Gotta love 'em.

Bush seems "relieved" he's going out--if it's true, then me too

2008-10-14T06:17:00.003-05:00

Do notice that it's my dear John Danforth making this observation about Bush. He's a very bright man and he's the only Republican I remember ever voting for. He's a lovely man and we need more like him, but do I trust him enough to believe him?

You have to admit that Bush has been acting like he's ready to pull a senior prank. A ridiculou little soft-shoe dance at a presser? And lord, did you see him at the Olympics? He behaved as though he was all magnanimous host, all bonhomie and hail-fellow-well-met. I about puked.

So let us hope. And hope. And hope.

From Think Progress:

Bush ‘relieved’ his presidency is almost over.

Despite an economic crisis shaking the country, President Bush has reportedly been very “relaxed.” Former Missouri senator John C. Danforth was at a fundraiser with Bush last week and said that the President “seemed relieved” his presidency was nearly over. “[He] looked as though he was about to shed this burden of the presidency. … I took it as though, ‘I’ve done the best I can, I think I made the right decisions and now it’s almost over,’” said Danforth. The New York Times also reports that “Bush has been telling people privately that it’s a good thing he’s in charge” during the country’s rough times because he has “a good group of people in D.C. working for him.”

UpdateAP reports that under Bush, "U.S. clout in what it once considered its backyard has sunk to perhaps the lowest point in decades. As Washington turned its attention to the Middle East, Latin America swung to the left and other powers moved in."

Sweet Joe Biden

2008-10-13T17:07:00.003-05:00

I've loved Joe Biden for years. Listen to him talk about his old friend, John McCain, in the most gentle, loving fashion. He's tough on him, but it's sweet, too.

Chris Matthews:

The Be Good Tanyas--They make my thoughts dance on their toes.

2008-10-13T06:20:00.005-05:00

They rock, in a nice wonderful way, like the song that went with the movie Juno. Loved it, too.

Michelle Obama is the real deal

2008-10-12T14:47:00.000-05:00

Have you seen Michelle Obama's recent interviews? She's so solid and good.

I think that's what people recognize in the Obamas: their basic solid goodness. There's the ersatz, religiony, test-marketed "goodness," then there's the kind you can see if you've got eyes.

I was reading an article in Newsweek, a long bio of Michelle Obama. Several things stuck out, like:

Though she has no official policy role in the campaign, she has been deployed to speak directly to the fears of black audiences in a way that Barack often does not. Earlier this year, Obama staffers worried that some African-American voters might still be reluctant to believe that a black man could really be elected president. Michelle went down to South Carolina to try to put them at ease. As she reviewed her speech on the plane ride to one event, a story came to mind. She thought of African-Americans she had known who had saved for new furniture, only to wrap it in plastic to protect it. But in the end, doing so was self-defeating. "That plastic gets yellow and scratches up your leg," she told the audience. "I think folks just want to protect us from the possibility of being let down … by the world as it is. A world, they fear, is not ready for a decent man like Barack. Sometimes it seems better not to try at all than to try and fail." She urged them to take the risk.

We're all a bit worried on that point, and it's good to hear Michelle Obama tell us why fear isn't an option. Take the risk, but don't take any risks.

I'm a benevolent director--way low on the authority thing

2008-10-12T14:17:00.004-05:00

Benevolent Director

Usually these things are tripe, but this actually had some insightful questions. It's not Meyers-Briggs, but is pretty fun nonetheless. Click on the link above to take it for yourself. Let me know what you think.

Here's an explanation of the results (pardon the formatting, it's the best I can do):

You are Benevolent

You are a great person to interact with—understanding, giving, and trusting—in a word, BENEVOLENT

You don't mind being in social situations, as you feel comfortable enough with people to be yourself.

Your caring nature goes beyond a basic concern: you take the time to understand the nuances of people's situations before passing any sort of judgment.

You're a good listener, and even better at offering advice.

You're concerned with others at both an individual and societal level—you sympathize with the plights of troubled groups, and you can care about people you've never met.

Considering many different perspectives is something at which you excel, and you appreciate that quality in others.

Other people's feelings are important to you, and you're good at mediating disputes.

Because of your understanding and patience, you tend to bring out the best in people.

If you want to be different:

You spend a lot of time taking care of others, but don't forget to take care of yourself!

Sometimes you can get overcommitted, and when you sacrifice spending time with those close to you, it can make them feel unimportant.

Confidence	Low High	52
Openness	Low High	90
Extroversion	Low High	90
Empathy	Low High	68
Trust in others	Low High	90
Agency	Low High	54
Masculinity	Low High	34
Femininity	Low High	88
Spontaneity	Low High	70
Attention to style	Low High	36
Authoritarianism	Low High	2
Earthy/Imaginative	Imaginative Earthy	76
Aesthetic/Functional	Functional Aesthetic	86

Hopes and fears

2008-10-12T14:00:00.004-05:00

This was taken looking down on one of Hermann, Missouri's main drags. My parents have lived here since I was college age and it's authentically quaint. A huge storm was rolling in, which I made more dramatic, as is my way. I had a thought about that little car making a turn. What if it were bathed in a glow from above, as if by magic? Even though I've given up believing in magic, it's still an awesome artistic metaphor.

If you right click my photos, please don't use them to make money.

I am le tired. Between the atavistic mob mentality being stirred by McPalin, the ever more dire economic news, worries about what the unelected president may yet have up his sleeve and life in general, I am more than un peau le tired.

All along I've worried that whoever is elected top dog inherits a clusterfuck of such enormous proportions that dragging us out of it will be impossible. And now, with so much money hemorrhaging against our line of credit, that concern is heightened.

We are not a patient people. I just hope Obama's golden touch can transform the roll back the monomaniacal treachery visited by a man who never won a national election.

The end of ze world

2008-10-12T13:58:00.002-05:00

This is a timeless treasure, more relevant than ever. Excuse the French, but I'm assuming if you happened here, that you speak French like a sailor.

Favorite line? "But I am le tired."

Les Mis-Obama Video--Powerful grandeur within a set piece

2008-10-10T17:20:00.004-05:00

This is well done, see for yourself.

Props to the Ultimate Improv group. I still respond to grandeur like a kid. I get goosebumps from the awe of it all.

If you become VP, it's Canada for me--singalong

2008-10-10T13:48:00.003-05:00

Brilliant.

The lyrics:

Hey Sarah Palin, do you tell them in Wasilla
That 4,000 years ago we roamed the planet with Godzilla
Is it true
I am so fucking scared of you
As number 2

Hey Sarah Palin, I think Alaska's very pretty
But just 100,000 people more than Oklahoma City
Yes it's true
Go look it up, Im telling you
Oh man, were through

Chorus
Oh, if you become VP, oh, its Canada for me (2x)
Its Canada for me

Hey Sarah Palin, did you really once inquire
Whether you could throw library books into a big bonfire
God, my eyes
This really might be our demise
This pack of lies

Hey Sarah Palin, just because you're good at shootin
Doesn't mean you have the ammo to negotiate with Putin
Are you on coke
This fucking countrys up in smoke
Oh what a joke

Chorus
Oh, if you become VP, oh what will it mean for me (2x)

Bridge
Just because I can see the moon
Doesn't make me an astronaut, you loon
Your foreign policy expertise is pooh
Do you really think a woman commits
To a candidate just because she has tits
Please tell me that this ticket is not true
I thought that there could be no worse
Than Cheney, but here you are, I curse
The madman who would cast a vote for you
And McCain too

Hey Sarah Palin, is it media distortion
Or would you tell a girl whos raped that she could not have an abortion
Its a new low
Who knows just how far you would go
Id rather vote for Ross Perot
Hey Sarah Palin I dont know
Where can we go

Chorus

Here's another:

The Bradley Effect: Have We Evolved?

2008-10-10T12:47:00.005-05:00

Or is there a 21st century peasantry with an atavistic fear of the "other" who also know it's socially unacceptable and therefore hide it to pollsters?

Norm Solomon, over on Alternet warns progressives that any crystal ball that says it's in the bag for Obama is a fake. It's far from over.

Here's his take on the Bradley Effect:

There's also the matter of race -- and, more to the point, racism. "Many older Democrats quietly admit they will not vote for Mr. Obama because they fear he would put too many blacks in power, or be hamstrung in office by racial opposition," the New York Times reported from Florida on Oct. 4.

This fall, no one knows exactly how much we'll see of the "Bradley effect" -- named after the defeat of the black mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, who received conspicuously fewer votes from whites than election-eve polling had predicted when he ran for governor in 1982.

Polls involving a black nominee "have tended to undersell the level to which race negatively impacts voting -- particularly among whites," political reporter Chris Cillizza wrote on washingtonpost.com four months ago. "That is, a black candidate tends to underperform his or her polls on Election Day, as some voters who may have told a pollster they would support an African-American candidate ultimately decide against doing so."

The Bradley effect has a long history, Cillizza noted. "In other races involving a black candidate -- most notably Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt's candidacies against Sen. Jesse Helms in 1990 and 1996 as well as L. Douglas Wilder's victorious run for the Virginia governor's mansion in 1989 -- the Bradley effect came into play."

Some political analysts say that the Bradley effect has diminished and will have little or no impact on Obama. Maybe they're right. But I doubt it.

Then there's FiveTwentyEight, a site that's gained a large following for it's method of aggregating polls.

Here's the money quote from that article:

As we have described here before, polling numbers from the primaries suggested no presence of a Bradley Effect. On the contrary, it was Barack Obama -- not Hillary Clinton -- who somewhat outperformed his polls on Election Day.

What do you think? Have we evolved past our own dark hearts?

Science gets all mysticky and swears it's all true!

2008-10-10T11:19:00.010-05:00

Quantum mechanics is inherently difficult to explain to the layladylay like me, but this outfit does a pretty good job of it. It's every bit as wild to contemplate as a fairy tale, but scientists swear it's what they've found.

Do I have to reinvent myself in every parallel universe? No wonder our psychic chatter is so loud. Enjoy. I'll be imagining my own reality.

Found at Ovablastic, a truly various experience.

No anti-government pretender should be elected dog-catcher

2008-10-09T21:31:00.006-05:00

Frank Paynter of Listics fame is concerned, along with a lot of us. He left a sobering comment to my post about the conversation we'd been having on his blog. He wrote:

David Sirota says, "I fear for Barack Obama's safety in these final days. I really do. The conservative movement is not going to go down quietly - and with this upsurge in unbridled anger, I'm worried we're going to see some violence. I really hope I'm wrong - but I'm concerned."

At this point it looks like a landslide for Obama, and with that landslide a chance to begin to turn the country away from the oppression of a fascist corporatocracy. To do this though, we have to realize that the entire right wing -- from the deluded Ayn Rand fanatics to the Christian end-of-the-world cultists -- is essentially our "enemy." I hate that word, enemy. I would prefer to live in a world that isn't polarized in an us-or-them way. Sadly, we don't live in that world yet, so it pays to recognize the enemy and deal with them appropriately.

There is no reason an anti-government pretender should be elected dog-catcher in this country, much less President. Managing government, guiding decent policy creation is what government should be about. But these right-wing whack jobs have a different agenda, one that doesn't include democracy, one that gives away our common wealth to the most avaricious and power hungry.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that Palin's incitement (reflecting the McCain campaign's policy) doesn't create a situation where one of the people who actually believes in that right-wing b.s. takes it upon himself to rid the country of HIS enemy.

The power elite will do what it can to derail the electoral process and retain power. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that they will fail this fall.

I'm very worried at the high dudgeon the Republican "base" is in. I'm wary of them like one would be of a rabid dog, they are so adamantly out of touch with documented fact.

The pathological followers, and their outliers, are cause for real concern.

Republicans are angry and dangerous

2008-10-09T21:19:00.003-05:00

These are the scariest people I've ever seen on public streets. Their only talking points seem to be Obama is a Muslim terrorist.

Were they all horribly mistreated as infants?

Donna Brazille Speaks to Racism and Says No Way

2008-10-09T13:50:00.004-05:00

Donna Brazille rocks. She is conversationally eloquent and tells it to the people, all the people.

At The Yorker Festival: click here for video 4 min

Progressive Decay: St. Louis

2008-10-09T11:25:00.001-05:00

Compassion: Scientifically Proven to Improve Health

2008-10-08T18:28:00.003-05:00

Data from a new Emory University study suggests that individuals who engage in “compassion meditation” based on a thousand-year-old Tibetan Buddhist mind-training practice (called "lojong" in Tibetan), appears to effectively reduce the inflammatory and behavioral responses to stress that have been linked to depression and a number of physical illnesses. The practice revolves around fostering a sense of heightened compassion for others.

This is the best news I've heard in a long time. Finally, people can satisfy their own self interest by focusing on compassion rather than the judgment we usually run to for validation. Hmmm. This could be big.

Here's the link.

Frank Paynter and I talk scary shit

2008-10-07T22:49:00.006-05:00

Frank Paynter is a comforting voice without the denial too many comforting thoughts demand of us these days. I mean, did we really just give our future GDP to fucking bankers? Has the road to martial law not been paved with 100% lawyer-certified goldshit bricks? Are there a million people on the homeland security watch list? Did we really kill a million Iraqisa? Torture? Disappearing? Held without charges? "Freedom Zones?"--it's just too much, especially in light of the presence of military crowd control specialists on US soil, tasked with putting down any civilian insurrection--not in so many words. Read it yourself.

Naomi Wolf has the naked and very raw sound of truth about her that's amplified by the very possible hazard that might await. The White House has absolute, unequivocable, disappeared-maybe-yes-you-too, power these days. When does power not get used?

I realize who haven't been following the low level chatter on this subject for as long as I have may think this is nuts as it gets, that I'm a whacked out conspiracy theorist with no tether on reality. Let's all hope so--those who partake, pray on it mightily, because nothing would please me more than being invade-Iraq wrong on this issue.

Why has Bush so thoroughly paved the way to declare martial law, built secret prisons, made it extra-legal to spy on Americans, hired his own army, reserved the "right" to detain who he wants without just cause, etc., etc., etc., when he's already taken over our children's tax dollars in a premature ejaculation of criminal largesse to proven and well-paid despoilers of the public good? Sorry, my sentences get long when I'm worried.

I don't sleep like I used to. Maybe I'm over-tired and overwrought. But I really am afraid that I'm not. I would love to spin myself into a little cocoon of magic in which this all went away, we have our lovely President Obama in January, and Bush, et al, slink into the ignominy and public humilation they labored so diligently to earn.

Let me know what you think after clicking the links and reading through all this.

Bremer, Bird and Fortune: Distraction for a Trying Day

2008-10-07T13:43:00.004-05:00

British humor tends to the dry, but there's no escaping the funny in this lovely bit of British humor. Dinner party conversation turns to recycling and as though a truth serum is in the pasties, we hear how these upper crusters really feel about being put out to save the environment.

Favorite line? "The terrorists have won."

Incoherent marble-mouth niglets? Video makes the white underbelly of America vicious.

2008-10-04T14:45:00.008-05:00

This video is hot on reddit under the title "Black teenagers take Obama cult joke too far." First off, what cult joke? Second, what's the bfd? It's inappropriate as a school activity, sure, but shades of Nazi Youth?

I'm much more worried about Blackwater.

This kind of performance art has a long tradition in the African-American community. When we lived in a school district that was both 80% African American and remarkable, we saw these chant and dance routines several times a year at school assemblies. We always had stellar marching bands, too.

Thematically, it's a bit weird when the kids shift from "Yes I can" rhetoric to talking points about Obama's health plan. I mean, "healthcare for those who can't afford Medicaid," (?).

What I found truly alarming though were the comments. NightDragon2883 wasn't alone in his sympathies when he wrote, "At least when the Hitler Youth had their marches and chants you could understand what they were saying, unlike these incoherent marble-mouth niglets [emphasis mine]. Gonna be a fun 4 years if this douchebag gets into office."

NightDragon might have had a clearer view of the video had he removed his hood first. Gawd, I can't believe the hatred-stoked fear some white people have of black folks--evolution, please hurry. Things are looking ugly in the pale and fetid underbelly.

Control and Magical Thinking--Lack of One Leads to the Other

2008-10-04T12:39:00.011-05:00

Mind Hacks has an interesting post about an experiment in this week's Science that found "reducing participants' control increase[s] the tendency for magical thinking and the perception of illusory meaning in random or patternless visual scenes."

From imagining images where there are none to believing a mini-mall full of virgins are just waiting for that bomb to blow so they can have their wanton way with you is a long trot. But it's on the same slippery slope.

Like Dan Quale said, the mind is a terrible thing to lose, and we're culturally encouraged to let faith leap off even the tallest buildings without ever asking ourselves empirical questions.

Magical thinking is a placebo that can be like a crack pipe full of rocks for those so inclined. I'm not concerned with what consenting adults do with their gray matter, but too often they demand that all must toke, or suffer their consequences.

I don't want to take away anyone's security blanket, but after magical thinking reaches a critical mass, it's like putting anchovies on half a pizza. The stink spreads.

Nature

2008-10-04T02:39:00.003-05:00

Feel kinship for her awful kids, just keep her out of the lower 48

2008-10-04T02:35:00.006-05:00

Look closely as Palin's daughter flips the bird as if born to the barn.

I forget which one of her tikes this is, Trigger or Snapping Turtle--something like that. See how charming she is, flipping the fuck you at her brother? Word is the governor's boy, the soldier, was threatened with jail time for dealing drugs unless he pulled his act together in the military. And Miss Alaska must so be looking forward to becoming a grandmother! It's a risk you run when the only thing kids know about sex is that they shouldn't do it, but it's wonderful. We had a village idiot around here get pregnant the same way--she had no idea could feel so good and make a baby, too. It's a puzzle all around.

Like a lot of folks, I can relate to rotten kids. If you don't think your kids are rotten, you probably don't much about how they really are.

Joe Six-pack knows his kids are rotten. He and his wife Shawnette love to chase their gamey meat with a cold can of Stag. He doesn't trust anyone who wouldn't go to his church. He is convinced that if you spare the rod, you spoil the child--contrary to all evidence at home, but it's the authoritarian world view that keeps him comfy. He's a follower for the most part, because life is unfair. But given a little authority, he tends cruelly toward the heavy end of the nighclub.

He and his wife don't tell other about those intense dreams involving the arctic governor letting her hair down.

Rove is a smart, smart man to have picked a peck of Palin. If anyone could feed into the smaller side of the American psyche, the part that believes Fox is fair and balanced, it's this lovely lady.

Governor Palin does have a wink and a catchy tune, but she's too slow to dance to--not when the whole fucking shooting match is at stake. She's ready for a seat on "The View," not as Miss Runner Up to the biggest, oldest cheese in America.

Disarmingly charming, self-satisfied and incurious, she's easily dishonest and proudly unsophisticated. All the while, just like Dubya, she's dead certain of all that rattles around in her head.

We really, really need to stop recruiting from the that end of the DNA pool. She does have that reptilian sort of intelligence that makes her dangerous. She's cunning, that one, and vindictive. She says her rudder's stuck on true north, but she'll wiggle it around if she thinks she can get away with it.

I bet all that McCain thinks about is wiggling rudders.

Republicans will have to steal another election to get her to D.C. They couldn't possibly pull it off a third time, could they?

First, get towels and a man with three dangly toilet parts

2008-10-01T11:53:00.003-05:00

French and Saunders at their best.

Talibaptist to Oprah: "If You Open Your Mind, Your Brains Will Fall Out"

2008-10-01T11:22:00.006-05:00

Don't bother watching the whole thing, unless ecclesiastical buffoonery is your thang. I found this after seeing a video in response to my Oprah's magical thinking post. That's the one Norm (that clever, clever man) published on One Good Move. Apparently, the Talibaptists and their ilk think Oprah may be fooling around with the Antichrist.

American Public Education v. Creativity

2008-10-01T10:26:00.008-05:00

It has always amazed me that after second grade, school is the most tedious place on earth for a lot of our kids. Have you cracked a textbook lately? It's an Ambien martini without a buzz. The world is an exciting place, the enormity of the human condition and its variations are riveting. Yet, until every last fun bit is strangled out of it, American children aren't likely to learn about it.

In fairness, there are wonderful teachers who manage to transcend--but they've taken a vow of poverty to excite our children about the world. Good on all y'all. I know quite a few whose passion matches their task. I know many more who discourage and poison our children with their didactic dullness.

Creativity is the closest we get to transcendence in this life, it's our best thing and needs to be valued. Everything is at stake, we need everybody's talents nurtured. When I saw this TED Talk for the first time, I hooted and now I hope.

Spitting for Jesus

2008-10-01T10:21:00.002-05:00

Ricky Gervais Explains Creation

2008-10-01T10:19:00.001-05:00

Remember the good old days when we were all spoiled brats?

2008-10-01T09:21:00.000-05:00

Who's Whining Now P. GrimmyGramm?

Missouri River Valley

2008-10-01T02:27:00.002-05:00

The Dance of the Periodic Tables

2008-09-30T14:22:00.002-05:00

What do you remember about the periodic tables? No this much, but this is fun.

2008-09-30T13:20:00.001-05:00

Studs Terkel: The Great Depression Interviews

2008-09-30T12:43:00.001-05:00

Studs Terkel interviews. Excellent, depressing, and perhaps good to know given our current crisis. I saw a recipe for acorn flour this morning, and I'm thinking about raising chickens, nu?

Sunday Picture Show

2008-09-28T11:19:00.000-05:00

Leaving the Secret Magical Church of Oprah

2008-09-27T13:14:00.000-05:00

Magical thinking makes no one wiser.

You're in your attic. Water's rising and the attic's far apex is knocking your head as the water laps into your mouth.. The impossible is going down. You're gonna die. Your children are gonna die. And it's got nothing to do with your ability to envision success.

They rescued the family next door yesterday. If you're an Oprah true believer, you must be thinking your visualizations of perfect linens and running water need juju. Obviously, your Power of Intention isn't worthy, if it were, everything would be fine..

I don't know about all y'all, but this is wrong from every which way. That water does not give a shit about anything. It's nature, and it's careless like a distracted second grader with a hot poker. Your life is as incidental to that water as a bloated swine carcass.

If you still believe there's a loving creator attending to your personal outcome, then that creator is doing a bait and switch on the folks that are already dead. Talk about falling down on the job.

It about makes me heartsick to hear survivors thank God or Jesus or Yawheh or Whoever for saving their lives.

It avoids the obvious question of just how Jesus must have felt about the babies and daddies who drowned in an airless horror story of warm oily water that just kept on coming. Were they not as worthy? Did they not see Oprah the day she did "The Secret"?

Get Whatever You Want For Thinking On It Real Hard.

Oprah has been all over this "envision your best life" notion as spelled out in best-selling book and movie, "The Secret." Essentially, it goes, if you wish for a red convertible with enough mental energy, then it's practically in your garage.

Positive thinking is great stuff. I use it in moderation from time to time myself. But, that mansion on the hill will not be mine in exchange for any amount of hard pondering. Hard thinking for personal gain is beyond absurd. And beneath this pillow sham of hooey, everybody knows it. Why else do people consistently credit their own success to hard work, tenacity, great people, education and determination? Because working, acting, learning, going, being, doing—these are the only way to create success. Thinking in your own head about selfish things makes you stupid, credits all the wrong things, and blinds you to your fellows.

This newest brand of selfish-help-through-visualization ripens us to subtly aim a finger at the non-visualizing poor, the ill, the ugly, the fat, the pimply, et al. for being the author of their own suffering. Why, it's practically criminal in some circles.

We absolve ourselves of any moral involvement because it's their fault, not our problem to fix. Now off to yoga and smoothies with ginseng and studying our own pretty princess selves 24/7.

Time was, we were our brother's keeper, when Americans weren't so magicky in their thinking. Barbara Ehrenreich reminds us vividly of the not so long ago in this bit from a larger article on Alternet:

Americans did not start out as deluded optimists. The original ethos, at least of white Protestant settlers and their descendents, was a grim Calvinism that offered wealth only through hard work and savings, and even then made no promises at all. You might work hard and still fail; you certainly wouldn't get anywhere by adjusting your attitude or dreamily "visualizing" success. Calvinists thought "negatively" as we would say today, carrying a weight of guilt and foreboding that sometimes broke their spirits. It was in response to this harsh ethos that positive thinking arose -- among mystics, lay healers, and transcendentalists -- in the 19th century, with its crowd-pleasing message that God, or the universe, is really on your side, that you can actually have whatever you want, if the wanting is focused enough.

I predict as financial fortunes smile upside down more widely, we'll find fewer people wanting to be held morally responsible for their balance sheets.

It's become criminal to struggle, even when so much is stacked against the marginally moneyed. Not long ago, poverty was everywhere and there was no sin in it—my dad slept head-to-toe with his brother on the bottom bunk while my aunt slept up top. Fine old family, nobody thought a thing. They were well off compared to many, but took no moral superiority for their fortune.

We're in for some tough times that need sober visage and steady hands from some unlikely quarters-- like business and government--to navigate. We no longer have the luxury of fudging the numbers or changing the subject when the problem is unpopular, hard, or just hard to explain.

We certainly can't visualize our way out of the Wall Street bailout and its fallout. I'm sick and tired of being reassured falsely. Do not pat my head. I want a bunch of hardheaded realists who feel the weight of the times, tell the truth, and get us all working together to make things right for everybody.

If winter hits and reality is not the new black, I fear a dearth of smoothies, chai tea lattes, and Spanx.

Pretty princesses-- petulant princes-- the times they are a'changin', and you won't know what it is.

Autumn Fall

2008-09-14T23:47:00.000-05:00

I could be a stah!

2008-09-14T23:45:00.001-05:00

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The South
The Inland North
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Too dirty for ya? Man up, you can do it.

2008-08-31T19:19:00.000-05:00

See more Mike O'Connell videos at Funny or Die

I cannot get that song out of my head. It's like a tapeworm that grows and adds more choruses in my brain."

Photoshop is my friend.

2008-08-31T17:52:00.002-05:00

Carla Heiney and Kevin St. Laurent Best Dance Ever

2008-08-29T20:44:00.001-05:00

This performance makes me smile rainbows and unicorns.

How many women can one woman be in one lifetime?

2008-05-29T23:21:00.002-05:00

The answer is at least this many, likely many more. My original artwork, click to enbiggen.

Whistling by the gates of the cemetery--a tentative beginning

2008-05-29T23:18:00.002-05:00

Freeform Peyote Stitched Cuff

2008-05-29T19:52:00.000-05:00

Photoshoppery: St. Louis Art Museum

2008-05-29T19:48:00.000-05:00