Fascinating Blog Find

While meandering around the web looking for answers to why the snails were gathered together on the stone wall in Peggy's latest post, I discovered a fascinating blog right under my very nose. Snail's Tales originates in Germantown, MD, home of one of the colleges where Cathy teaches. Perhaps the blogger teaches there, also. He's clearly a serious scientist and nature lover. The blog (to this former biology major's delight) is full of posts on snails, birds, cats, and other creeping (and creepy, appropriately enough for Halloween) things. I especially love the post on hooded crows, which the blogger photographed in Istanbul. Crows are one of my loves. Here's a you-tube of a hooded crow calling in someone's back yard. I found this elsewhere on the web, not in Snail's Tales. The hooded crow is called a "hoodie" in northern Ireland, btw. (See, you can learn things from blogs!!)



I've added Snail's Tales to my list of blogs that I read regularly (not necessarily the same thing as often). Go take a look. He has a fascinating post on the theory of evolution, creationism, et al.

look at this!

Today's Blogging in Paris features Ms. T's magnificent jack-o-lantern. Go have a look!

Seven Things I Don't Do Any More--a meme for late October

As usual, this is another poached idea, and the person I poached it from had such a very thoughtful list, it inspired me. Getting older has meant shedding lots of the things I did when I was younger. Generally, it's a pleasant process, resulting in much less stress and expense.

1. I don't iron clothes or make my bed (that could count for two, but i stopped doing those two things about the same time--1965--so i'm counting them as one. if something needs pressing, I take it to the cleaners. And if i'm selling my house, of course i make the bed, but once the contract is in the bag...no way.

2. I don't do yoga any more, and I don't wear high heels. (another two-fer--they cancelled each other out)

3. I don't go to church any more, either. The last church i joined (briefly) asked me to declare i have accepted jesus christ as my lord and savior. i said i thought if jesus was going to save me, he'd have showed up by now.

4. I don't go dancing or playing pool in smoky places. Ish.

5. I don't watch TV other than one hour of Britcoms on an occasional Saturday night or read any newspapers other than very local ones (like Rock Creek Press, the Georgetowner, Dupont Current, etc.). i see articles from the NY Times often enough on Truthout.com--especially Frank Rich on Sunday--but I don't buy it and I don't read it, not even online.

6. i don't drink milk or beer any more. milk makes my feet hurt--i kid you not--and beer makes me crazy.

7. i don't own a car any more. i sold my last one in 1991, and it was one of the happiest days of my life: no more gas, no more insurance, no more repairs, no more standing by the roadside in high heels and those wienie nylons hitchhiking to work when the damn car broke down. you would be amazed at 1) who speeds past a well-dressed working woman stranded on her way to or from work and 2) who stops to help. (hint...one group usually includes those who are out of work and have alcohol on their breath at 7:30 a.m., and the other group drives cars you have to fill with premium gas.)

12 Important Reasons Why Gay Marriage Will Ruin Society

#1:
Out of the mouths of babes--and Canadians....I read this today at Ronniecat's blog. Click the link, and you can read it there your own self.

Some of you may be aware of a Proposition that will be on the ballot in California next week which, if passed, will repeal that state's current allowance of marriages between two men or two women. As a Canadian who has witnessed first-hand the longer-term effects of legalizing gay marriage on a society, I thought it was very important to reprint this list of 12 Important Reasons Why Gay Marriage Will Ruin Society before California voters go to the polls.

1. Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control are not natural.

2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people cannot get legally married because the world needs more children.

3. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children because straight parents only raise straight children.

4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful, since Britney Spears's 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.

5. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and it hasn't changed at all: women are property, Blacks can't marry Whites, and divorce is illegal. [Note to Ronnie and the author of these 12 reasons: maybe that last is true in Canada, but anybody can marry anybody else down here, no matter what color they are, and we can get divorced just by, well, divorcing.]

6. Gay marriage should be decided by the people, not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of minorities.

7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are always imposed on the entire country. That's why we only have one religion in America. [Which one would THAT be?]

8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people makes you tall.

9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage license.

10. Children can never succeed without both male and female role models at home. That's why single parents are forbidden to raise children.

11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven't adapted to cars or longer lifespans.

12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a "separate but equal" institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages will for gays & lesbians.

The above list was compiled by GatorGSA , a group of people who clearly have their heads screwed on straight, no pun intended.

[Ronnie's note] [In all seriousness, marriage rights for gay men and women in California are seriously threatened by this proposition. The greatest outrage in my opinion is the pouring of millions of dollars into anti-gay-marriage propaganda ads by evangelical groups outside the state who presume to tell Californians what their values are. I can't even imagine the gutted feelings of married gay Californians who may be told for the second time that their lifelong commitment before their family, friends, any Higher Power they believe in, and the world is, sorry, invalidated. The Proposition 8 vote will be an important test of whether the US has made the leap with this election into the 21st century, or has not quite shaken off the yoke of theocracy. After the Presidential contest, Prop 8 will be my second-most-closely-worried-and-watched contest of this election.]

And, appropriately, here's #2:

It's an email from the director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Anthony Romero.

Dear ACLU Supporter,

I'm angry and heartsick about what may happen in California on November 4th.

In the most personal way possible, I'm writing to ask you for a favor: help us ensure that gay couples all across California keep their fundamental right to marriage -- the basic right to be treated just like anybody else.

I hope you will forgive the indulgence when I speak from the heart and tell you my personal story.

You see, I grew up in a loving and supportive household, where my family believed I could be anything I chose -- anything except being an openly gay man. Neither of my parents finished high school, and yet, they believed I could accomplish all I set out to do as I went off to Princeton University and Stanford Law School.

They got me through the toughest of times, scrimped and saved, and always believed that failure wasn't in the cards for me. They had more faith in me than I often had in myself. Whenever my parents visited me at Princeton, my Dad would slip a $20 bill in my pocket when my Mom wasn't looking. I never had the courage to tell him that the $20 wouldn't go very far towards my bills, books and tuition. But, it was his support and belief in me that sustained me more than the tens of thousands of dollars I received in scholarships.

When I finished college, they were hugely proud of my -- and their -- accomplishments. That was until I told them I was gay and wanted to live life as an openly gay man.

Though I always knew I was gay, I didn't come out to them for many years, as I was afraid of losing the love and support that had allowed me to succeed against all odds. When I did tell them, they cried and even shouted. I ended up leaving their home that night to spend a sleepless night on a friend's sofa. We were all heartbroken.

When my Mom and I spoke later, my Mom said, "But, Antonio (that's the name she uses with me), hasn't your life been hard enough? People will hurt you and hate you because of this." She, of course, was right -- as gay and lesbian people didn't only suffer discrimination from working class, Puerto Rican Catholics, but from the broader society. She felt that I had escaped the public housing projects in the Bronx, only to suffer another prejudice -- one that might be harder to beat -- as the law wasn't on my side. At the time, it felt like her own homophobia. Now I see there was also a mother's love and a real desire to protect her son. She was not wrong at a very fundamental level. She knew that treating gay and lesbian people like second class citizens -- people who may be worthy of "tolerance, " as Sarah Palin asserts, but not of equality -- was and still is the last socially-acceptable prejudice.

Even before I came out to them, I struggled to accept myself as a gay man. I didn't want to lose the love of my family, and I wanted a family of my own -- however I defined it. I ultimately chose to find my own way in life as a gay man. This wasn't as easy as it sounds even though it was the mid-1980s. I watched loved ones and friends die of AIDS. I was convinced I would never see my 40th birthday, much less find a partner whom I could marry.

As years passed, my Mom, Dad and I came to a peace, and they came to love and respect me for who I am. They even came to defend my right to live with equality and dignity -- often fighting against the homophobia they heard among their family and friends and in church.

The right to be equal citizens and to marry whomever we wish -- unimaginable to me when I first came out -- is now ours to lose in California unless we stand up for what's right. All of us must fight against what's wrong. In my 43 short years of life, I have seen gay and lesbian people go from pariahs and objects of legally-sanctioned discrimination to being on the cusp of full equality. The unimaginable comes true in our America if we make it happen. But, it requires effort and struggle.

One of the things I love about the ACLU is that it's an organization that understands we are all in this together. We recognize that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Given what's at stake in the outcome of this election, I am personally appealing to you for help to fight the forces of intolerance from carrying the day in California next Tuesday.

If you have friends and family in California, please contact them right now, and ask them to vote NO on Proposition 8. You can send them a message here.

We need to make sure people keep in mind that gay people are part of every family and every community -- that like everyone else, gay people want the same rights to commit to their partners, to take care of each other and to take responsibility for each other. We shouldn’t deny that, and we shouldn’t write discrimination into any constitution in any state. Certainly, we can't let that happen in California after the highest court in the state granted gay and lesbian people their full equality.

Unfortunately, due to a vicious, deceitful $30 million advertising blitz, the supporters of Prop 8 may be within days of taking that fundamental right away.

To stop the forces of discrimination from succeeding, we have to win over conflicted voters who aren't sure they're ready for gay marriage but who are also uncomfortable going into a voting booth and stripping away people's rights. With the ACLU contributing time, energy and millions of dollars to the effort, we're working hard to reach those key voters before next Tuesday.

If you have friends and family in California, please contact them right now, and ask them to vote NO on Proposition 8. Share this email with them. Call them. Direct them to our website for more information.

Don't let other young people grow up to be afraid to be who they are because of the discrimination and prejudice they might face. Let them see a future that the generation before them couldn't even dream of -- a future as full and equal citizens of the greatest democracy on earth.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." As we strive to defeat Prop 8 and the injustice it represents, the ACLU is trying to make that arc a little shorter.

On behalf of my Mom and family, and on behalf of all the people who will never face legally-sanctioned discrimination, I thank you for being part of this struggle and for doing everything you can to help.

It is a privilege and honor to have you as allies in this fight for dignity and equality.

With enormous appreciation,
Anthony D. Romero

And here's a good P.S., which just happens to be on my blog today, too: the meditation from Daily Om:

Intertwined Fates
We Are All Connected

There are times when we may feel disconnected from the world. Our actions can seem like they are of no major consequence, and we may feel like we exist in our own vacuum. Yet, the truth is that our simplest thought or action - the decisions we make each day, and how we see and relate to the world - can be incredibly significant and have a profound impact on the lives of those around us, as well as the world at large. The earth and everything on it is bound by an invisible connection between people, animals, plants, the air, the water, and the soil. Insignificant actions on your part, whether positive or negative, can have an impact on people and the environment that seem entirely separate from your personal realm of existence. Staying conscious of the interconnection between all things can help you think of your choices and your life in terms of the broader effect you may be creating.

Think of buying a wooden stool. The wood was once part of a tree which is part of a forest. A person was paid to fell the tree, another to cut the wood, and yet another to build the stool. Their income may have had a positive effect on their families, just as the loss of the tree may have had a negative impact on the forest or the animals that made that tree their home. An encouraging word to a young child about their special talent can influence this person to develop their gift so that one day their inventions can change the lives of millions. A poem written “merely” to express oneself can make a stranger reading it online from thousands of miles away feel less alone because there is someone else out there who feels exactly the way they do.

Staying conscious of your connection to all things can help you think of your choices in terms of their impact. We are powerful enough that what we do and say can reverberate through the lives of people we may never meet. Understanding that you are intimately connected with all things and understanding your power to affect our world can be the first step on the road to living more consciously.

Blue States' Letter to Red States....

Another goodie, if oldie, arrived today from Jim in Florida:

"My friend Wendy just sent this to us.

I've looked at so many of the TV networks Red and Blue state maps, that I can appreciate the humor of the following:

Dear Red States:

We've decided we're leaving.

We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes:

California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms. Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask
your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines, 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Berkeley, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.


Peace out,
Blue States

P.S. - I hope FL goes blue, as we enjoy our winters in West Palm Beach"

THEY'RE shocked?!?

More on the bailout mess from Jim in Florida:


This morning, while I was on-line, Sandy read Gretchen Morgenson's piece in the NY Times, (They’re Shocked, Shocked, About the Mess) which is well worth sharing.

Some excerpts:

MY hypocrisy meter konked out last week.

-------------

Mr. Greenspan was shocked, shocked to find that there was gambling going on in the casino.

--------------

Like the boy who cried wolf, corporate and regulatory officials have issued a lot of hogwash over the years. Until recently, investors were willing to believe it. Now they may not be so easily gulled.

Companies, even those in cyclical businesses, routinely told investors that the reason they so regularly beat their earnings forecasts was honest hard work — and not cookie-jar accounting. They were believed.

Politicians proclaiming that the economy was strong and that the crisis would not spread kept our trust.

Brokerage firms insisting that auction-rate securities were as good as cash won over investors — and, as we all know now, that market froze up.

Wall Street dealmakers were fawned over like all-knowing superstars, their comings and goings celebrated. No one doubted them.

Banks engaging in anything-goes lending practices assured shareholders that safety and soundness was their mantra. They, too, got a pass.

Directors who didn’t begin to understand the operational complexities of the companies they were charged with overseeing told stockholders that they were vigilant fiduciaries. Investors suspended their disbelief.

And regulators, asserting that they were policing the markets, convinced investors that there was a level playing field.

Is it any surprise that virulent mistrust seems to own the markets now?

---------------------------------------

“It is not enough to throw money at a problem; you also have to use honesty and common sense,” Ms. Tavakoli said. “In fact, if you leave out the last two, you are wasting taxpayers’ money.”

---------------------

and the close:

“If I were queen of the world, I would wade in there with a small army of people and just start straightening out these books,” she said. “Start stripping them down and simplifying contracts so people can start to understand what they own. It would be unprecedented, but so is everything else we are doing.”

THAT move, which would begin the much-needed healing process for investors, would be unprecedented in another way. It might get the people who run our companies and our regulatory agencies into the business of telling the truth.

Naïve, I know. But something to wish for — I’d like to give my hypocrisy meter a breather.

WHEN WILL THE BANKS GIVE LOANS? Who is Joe Nocera? (hint: he ain't no plumber)

Well, enough of the singin and dancin....Jim in Florida has sent another key post. Here it is:

This morning at breakfast, Sandy said - "Wait 'til you read Joe Nocera?"

His analysis today is "SO WHEN WILL BANKS GIVE LOANS?"

Here are a half dozen excerpts from his"Talking business" column in Saturday's NY Times that should get your attention.
---------------
In point of fact, the dirty little secret of the banking industry is that it has no intention of using the money to make new loans. But this executive was the first insider who’s been indiscreet enough to say it within earshot of a journalist.
----------
It is starting to appear as if one of Treasury’s key rationales for the recapitalization program — namely, that it will cause banks to start lending again — is a fig leaf, Treasury’s version of the weapons of mass destruction.
-------------

Indeed, Mr. Landler’s (NY Times) story noted that Treasury would even funnel some of the bailout money to help banks buy other banks. And, in an almost unnoticed move, it recently put in place a new tax break, worth billions to the banking industry, that has only one purpose: to encourage bank mergers. As a tax expert, Robert Willens, put it: “It couldn’t be clearer if they had taken out an ad.”

--------------------------

On Thursday, at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee, the chairman, Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, pushed Neel Kashkari, the young Treasury official who is Mr. Paulson’s point man on the bailout plan, on the subject of banks’ continuing reluctance to make loans. How, Senator Dodd asked, was Treasury going to ensure that banks used their new government capital to make loans — “besides rhetorically begging them?”

--------------------------

But they are doing no such thing. Unlike the British government, which is mandating lending requirements in return for capital injections, our government seems afraid to do anything except plead. And those pleas, in this environment, are falling on deaf ears.

---------------------

and finally:

Late Thursday afternoon, I caught up with Senator Dodd, and asked him what he was going to do if the loan situation didn’t improve. “All I can tell you is that we are going to have the bankers up here, probably in another couple of weeks and we are going to have a very blunt conversation,” he replied.

He continued: “If it turns out that they are hoarding, you’ll have a revolution on your hands. People will be so livid and furious that their tax money is going to line their pockets instead of doing the right thing. There will be hell to pay.”

Let’s hope so.

----------------------------

Sorry to do two in one day, but this seemed to be particularly relevant.

Jim

"There's No One as Irish as Barack Obama"

Thank you, Sherwood, for this joyful Irish ditty posted on yer blog this ayem. In the grand tradition of the Dwyers (whose name variously means "tribe of the horse gatherers"), I'm pinching it for Xtreme English. This one's for all my relatives & friends, who of course include Carroll, Flanigan, O'Connor, Feeney, Kinsella, and Brush (ye ARE Irish, are ye not, Juana?). If I've missed anyone, tsk:

The Heat Is ON!!

The furnace elf came today to turn on the boiler!! It's been doggone cold in here for the past week, especially. The other night, the temp got down to 30 degrees outside. It was warmer than that in here, but i don't think it got much over 55 or so.

I feel something of an expert at judging indoor temperatures, having learned in that great school, experience. My dad's rule, when we lived in Fargo, was to keep the thermostat at 55 degrees at night. When I got tall enough to read the thermostat, I was aghast to see that it was set at 60 degrees during the day! I remember pointing this out to my mother and having her chuckle in response. Dad set it at 60 because we had one of those new-fangled oil furnaces, and oil cost more than coal, which just about everyone else burnt in their furnaces.

We had to go get more oil one night when the oil ran out the day before the scheduled refill. I remember my dad and my brother Gene wading through deep snow that night to pull a 50-gallon oil drum on a toboggan. There was much activity outside as they wrestled the smaller drum into position and, using a big funnel, poured it into the pipe leading to the large tank, but I was not allowed to open the door to watch--that would let out all the "warm" air.

I'm feeling a bit sad, actually. Nothing heats like an old-fashioned steam radiator. They get hotter than blazes and make a room toasty warm. I've backed into the one in the bathroom several times and branded myself with bright red stripes on my backside. Even so, I don't hold it against them. They're wonderful. And they've kept this place warm and cozy for the ten years I've lived here. I hope my next place has steam radiators....

The Gadfly: Digby Speaks!

Here is Digby, my favorite political commentator/blogger, in her first print Q&A interview. Jesse Kornbluth does the honors for the L.A. Times Magazine. I love Digby. When I can't stomach reading anyone else, I read her. (And btw, HuffPost cross-posted this...give them credit.)

The darling of the progressive blogosphere is still yelling at the TV
by Jesse Kornbluth

Stop anyone on the street, and they'll know of Arianna Huffington—and she's glad they do. But the Left's second most influential blogger prefers anonymity.

"Digby" prolifically pumps out her dispatches from the People's Republic of Santa Monica, a few miles from Huffington's West Coast office. Her writing gives no gender clues, she comes off like a vengeful prosecutor—and the logo on her otherwise bare-bones site, which she calls Hullabaloo (digbysblog.blogspot.com), shows a screaming Howard Beale in a classic scene from Network.

Digby doesn't care about marketing her brand. Ever since she started blogging in 2002, progressive smarties considered her the first and last word on almost every administration outrage. This election season, it is routine on many political Websites to find a headline and, under it, three words: What Digby Said. And then a link sends you to the latest of Digby's passionate but meticulously researched screeds.

Last year, after Digby stepped front and center to accept the coveted Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award on behalf of progressive bloggers everywhere, her speech was slapped up on YouTube, and devoted readers were stunned to learn Digby was not an angry young man but, in fact, an ironic, round-faced woman. One who, after the appearance, quickly retreated from the spotlight. And now, in one small step for blogging but a giant one for Digby, the writer has consented to come out of hiding for her first print Q&A.I interviewed her via email at her secure location—which, of course, shall remain undisclosed.

JESSE KORNBLUTH: Can you tell us anything about yourself?
DIGBY: I'm a married, middle-aged woman who spent many years toiling in the entertainment industry.
[note: Kornbluth italics mine for readability-XE]

How did you get from Hollywood to Blogland?
Simple. President Clinton's impeachment and the 2000 election. It was either blog or put my foot through the TV.

If blogging didn't exist, what would you be doing now?
Probably writing those repetitive letters to the editor where the handwriting runs off the margin.

Why call your site Hullabaloo?
Because one function of blogs is to cause a ruckus.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif

What's your point in showing Howard Beale in full rant? Do you identify?
It's in this line from Network: "You dress like the tube. You eat like the tube...You even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing. We are the illusion."

Why do you blog anonymously?
I'm extremely private. And I feel my ideas should stand on their own without the authority (or lack thereof) of my own story.

But with one appearance, you lost some of the mystique. Was that a mistake?
My lack of gender identity precluded some of the online sexism, derision and rudeness that are so common for women writers. I've since been schooled in the phenomenon.

You weren't raised as a liberal. You once wrote, "Nobody could get my dad frothing like the Kennedys—Teddy especially." What changed?
Nothing. My family argued politics all the time. My older brother and I were always the liberals. That was fairly common among baby boomers—in those days, the culture war was fought at the dinner table.

You hammer at the "videogame cowboys" of the Bush Administration and its neocon advisers. What is it with these men?
They really believed Nixon's theory of an imperial presidency was correct and that every foreign-policy challenge could be jammed into their Cold War worldview. I always write, "They have been wrong about everything."

Do you have a problem with men?
Until a year or so ago, most people thought I was a man. I usually tell them I don't have a problem with men, just them personally.

You write warmly about female bloggers, but you've been withering on mainstream women columnists. Maureen Dowd, Peggy Noonan—what's their problem?
They're good writers, but each fetishizes certain shallow, adolescent gender myths that present conservative politicians as swashbuckling masculine archetypes and liberal politicians as subservient females.

What if a big paper offered you a column?
I would be shocked. I doubt I would accept. My outsider status is something I value.

Year after year, you have chronicled what you consider a rogue, un-American administration. What are your anger-management strategies? Or do you froth?
I froth. Being able to connect with others has refocused my anger in a positive direction. But I still yell at the TV.

Pundits who initially supported the Iraq War now say, "Back then, I didn't believe my government would lie to me." Why did progressive bloggers like you oppose the war from the start?
I've been alive long enough to know mommy and daddy aren't perfect, not to mention Nixon and Reagan. Of course governments lie. But in this case, it was obvious. The neocons had been telegraphing their intention to invade Iraq for years, hoping for a Pearl Harbor-style pretext. It wasn't a hard call.

You've reserved a special place in blog hell for "the Village," a media establishment you've said functions largely as a megaphone for the government.
I'm the one who coined that phrase. During the Lewinsky scandal, Sally Quinn wrote in the Washington Post that her "town" had been besmirched by Clinton's extramarital affair. The essence of the Village critique is this faux provincialism of wealthy politicians and multimillionaire celebrity pundits-and the ridiculous conceit that they stand for the values of "real Americans."

In all of your media consumption, do you have a guilty pleasure?
Perez Hilton. Gotta know what's up with Brangelina or be kicked out of the Westside.

If you were invited to appear on O'Reilly or Hannity, would you do it?
No. I'm a big believer in marginalizing the phony right-wing media. I wish all liberals would refuse to appear with them.

Do you think your blog is making a difference—that is, shaping opinions of the undecided or, miraculously, the Right? Or are you really just singing to the choir?
Mostly singing to the choir. But there's value in that, too. I'm trying to get people to believe in liberalism again. And I think giving them the tools to make the progressive argument at the dinner table or water cooler may have some effect on those who aren't informed or committed.

You've said the goal of the movement you identify with is to "take back America." If you had to settle for one victory—
Universal health care. It will restore people's faith in government by tangibly improving their lives. That's exactly why the Right is so afraid of it.

What could Sarah Palin do to win your endorsement?
I went to high school in Alaska and met my husband there, so I do feel a bit of kinship with Palin. But she'd have to disavow every political stand she's ever taken, denounce McCain, quit the Republican party and become a pro-choice advocate for me to endorse her. I do enthusiastically endorse Alaskan king salmon.

How would an Obama presidency change your daily activity?
It will be busier. I'm a progressive activist, so I expect I'll have to work hard to make sure the Obama administration and the Democratic majority, as Molly Ivins would have said, "dance with the ones that brung 'em." The Village can turn the most energetic change agents into stagnant puddles of inertia very quickly. It's our job to keep roiling the waters.

And a McCain presidency?
I'd immediately start working on a Santa Monica secession movement.

UPDATE: I've found the story again and added the changed link. here it is by itself in case you can't get it via the link: http://www.latimes.com/features/la-mag-oct052008-gadfly,0,6468464.story

Don't Look!!--UPDATED

Don't eat, either! This arrived today as the lead-off article in the Serious Eats newsletter....

UPDATE: Here's a Wikipedia article on poutine (cited in ronnie's comment). it's not poteen, kay (though that obviously might help)...ha.

Why do we have to BE anything?

Zack Kim playing "Fur Elise" by Ludwig von Beethoven

A friend and I had a rather long discussion this morning about her struggles to succeed as a deaf artist. She is one of the finest painters I know, but she has given up painting completely because of the lack of support she feels from a) the hearing world and b) the deaf community.

I feel despair when she talks like this. Why can't she just be an artist instead of a deaf artist? There are plenty of people who can't hear who don't identify as deaf. Most of them, in fact. And there are famous painters who were deaf but who did not present that as their face to the world. Musicians, too. I suppose it's everyone's choice how they want their story to go, but I wonder if we ever would have heard of Beethoven if he had insisted on being identified as a deaf musician? Maybe that's not fair. Beethoven was unique, and he probably would have been recognized as such no matter how he described himself. But maybe he would have wound up traveling with a circus.

Some deaf-themed art that I've seen seems really limited--viewing it is a one-note kind of experience. And some deaf artists produce work of astonishing beauty whether their theme is or is not specifically deaf-related.

Deafness is no freakin picnic. It leaves holes in one's experience of the world. I don't discount for a moment any deaf persons' wish to express their suffering and frustration through painting and drawing. But I think we all forget the universal thump. Just because somebody hears (and that's how human beings are made--to hear with their ears) does not mean they do not suffer deeply and cruelly from something else that they experience as cutting them off from society. At some places and in some times, having red hair would do this (witches! spawn of satan!). Would we then be expected to create and revere red-hair-themed art?

Question of the week

Do you suppose that after we elect Barack Obama, HuffPost will take John McCain's face off its daily headline?? I quit AOL because I got VERY tired of seeing W's face everytime I logged into my email. The media suck, and Arianna Huffington is no liberal. From being a several-times-a-day reader of HuffPost last year, I've gone to checking it maybe once every 10 days or so just to see what they're up to. Generally, they don't seem to be up to any good with their constant McCain coverage. Genug, already.

still laughing....

Blogging in Paris again has a winning video clip--this one about the coming switch from analog to digital TV:



And if you can stand any more laughs, take a look at the hot tub on Wrath of Dawn:

Friday goodies from the web--"The Job"

Blogging in Paris has posted "The Job," a wonderful short film today from Screaming Frog Productions. I've never heard of Screaming Frog Productions, but they have a website for "The Job," and in its contact/links" section, you can find a list of other cool film makers.

Just by a wonderful coincidence, "The Job" will be playing at the DC LaborFest TODAY, October 17, 2008!! Is this serendipitous or what?

So Who IS Joe the Plumber??

[Thanks to the untiring Jim Feeney for this]

Turns out Joe earned $40K last year, is not a licensed plumber, nor a registered voter, but does have a lien against him for not paying his taxes.

His bosses business did not do $280K last year, but about $100K, so I guess neither Joe nor his boss need to worry about those making over $250K having to pay more in taxes under Obama's plan.

John and Sarah should stop asking WHO IS BARACK OBAMA, and instead WHO IS JOE THE PLUMBER? (Joe, of course, was mentioned 21 times by McCain in the debate Tuesday night.)

It is much more fun to listen to MSNBC's Keith Olberman explain this:

First Stupid Award....

Goes to Steve Pearlstein of the Washington Post whose column yesterday claimed that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was the mastermind behind the bailout and the more recent bank capitalization that is saving our financial bacon.

As usual, if you want the truth, don't go to the WashPost for it.

Read Glenn Greenwald's column in yesterday's Salon.com.

After listing the words and events that Pearlstein ignores, Greenwald concludes:

What kind of game does Pearlstein think he's playing -- who does he think he's fooling -- by claiming that "Paulson has moved faster, more aggressively and more deftly than any of his international counterparts in doing whatever was necessary to stabilize the financial system"?

Both Paulson (and thus Pearlstein) were vigorously opposed to this approach from the start and Paulson (and thus Pearlstein) only jumped on board with it because Europe did and they therefore had to. That's fine, but all of these events took place in the last four weeks. It's a bit early to think you can just completely re-write history to make yourself look better and think that nobody will notice.

I'd say Pearlstein's attempt to mislead--i.e., lie to--us was pretty stupid. So I'm giving him the first XtremeEnglish STUPID Award. I haven't thought of an appropriate symbol for this award. An old post as in "dumb as a post"? All I have to do is find one and take a photo of it. Since this is DC, it will be a Washington post, too. Ha. Hang on....

It's not that I don't love 'em....

But my followers, both of them, were looking too lonely on my blog. So I sent them back to anonymity. I know they'll still read me from time to time...and I've got them on my own list of blogs that I follow regularly (except for Ole Phat Stu, who has so perfected the art of guarding his bloggy privacy that I can't even notify him I'm a reader). Anyway, you guys, I'll miss your sunflowers and pink wellies, but some things are too distracting.

Meanwhile, my brain churns with new ideas in retirement. Ronni Bennett has cornered the elder market, so I'm thinking of setting up a blog for stupidity. That way I won't have to depend on any single demographic. I'll be able to choose from all but the youngest of us. Those smart little babies and toddlers are exempt--especially this one knitting chicken's adorable grandchildren, photos of whom she has featured recently.

I personally haven't done anything too too stupid in the past day or two. Just the usual graceless remarks and things like that. I don't know how swift it was to get my black pinstriped suit dry cleaned for an interview tmw, though. It's supposed to be in the 80s again. Maybe I'll just carry the jacket.

Meanwhile, in Ward 2.....

The UGLYREPUGLICANS are said to be launching their foul last-month-of-the-campaign attacks on newly registered voters and the organizations who are registering them.

It figures. They already have a lot of the registered voting taken care of (screwed up).

This past Wednesday's Georgetown Current details the job Sequoia Voting Systems recently did on long-time registered voters in DC's Ward 2, the very heart of Georgetown, where recent homeowners have included the Washington Post's publisher, Katherine Graham (R.I.P., Ms. Graham, but please get up and vote anyway).

The article, "Council airs city election weaknesses," by Elizabeth Weiner, runs on pages 1 and 30 of the Georgetown Current's 37th volume, October 8, 2008, issue. The PDF file of this issue can be downloaded and read or printed.

The salient points:

For the recent city council primary election on September 9, 2008, a cartridge from Sequoia that recorded the vote at one Ward 2 precinct "produced over 1,500 'phantom' write-in votes--'a total completely out of whack, so anomalous it should not have been released'...."

Sequoia staffers have not come up with any reliable or credible explanation for their equipment's egregious malfunction. One person suggested the carpet in the voting room created electrostatic discharge that caused the cartridge to produce the 1500 phantom write-ins. Another suggested the cartridge malfunctioned because "someone jiggled it." As quoted in the article, Sequoia also said that "city's voting equipment is old and the air conditioning as well as the thick carpeting in the board's computer room could cause problems."

City Council representative David Catania asked Sequoia why they hadn't insisted the District upgrade its systems. He said, "Sequoia should say, "If you don't upgrade your equipment, we won't work with you." As to the computer room, Catania also said, "Why didn't you say, 'Are you nuts? You're tabulating results in a static-filled room.'"

Uh huh. The solution for the next election in Ward 2 on November 3, 2008, will be to have TWO identical systems counting the votes. If they're not identical, then what? The last two paragraphs of Wiener's article read,

Earlier in the hearing, Cheh (Ward 3) displayed a printout of unofficial returns for the Democratic at-large council race, where Kwame Brown ran unopposed. She added up votes for Brown, write-ins, "under-votes " (where no vote was cast), and "over-votes" (where the voter chose more than one name).

The total was several thousand off from the total number of Democratic ballots cast. None of the witnesses could explain the discrepancy.

As old Frank Pacer, the retired pulp cutter holding up one end of the bar in the town tap in Elcho, used to say, "Holy Jumpin' Jesus!"

O-L-H??*

Recent emails sent to one of my contemporaries who has lost an out-of-print interlibrary exchange book!!! She asked if I thought this kind of thing was related to age....

Part 1

yesterday i had cathy's car for the a.m., so i planned to go to whole foods and buy a bunch of vegetables--the ones listed in NF Walker's wonderful old book, Diet and Salads, which is hard to come by these days but which arrived day before yesterday from one of Amazon's private booksellers. on the day before yesterday, i was sitting in our lobby so i could let a realtor in the front door. anyway, the mailman arrived and handed me the long-awaited book and half a dozen pieces of junk mail. as there was no sign of the realtor, i decided to do a last minute tidying and stuffed the junk mail into a little black plastic bag from the wine store down the hill. added a few other stray bits of litter, tied the bag up by the handles, and tossed it in the dumpster.

the next day [yesterday] when i went to get the book to see which veggies and fruits and nuts i needed to make one of Walker's delicious salads, i couldn't find it anywhere. i cursed my newly reactivated tidying habits and searched all the bookshelves. zip. then it came to me: perhaps i had tossed out the book with the junk mail. i scrambled down to the dumpster out back, saw a little black back tied at the top, and fished it out. nope. somebody's half-eaten dinners. i peered into the dumpster some more and saw some black bags at the bottom--out of my reach. so i went in and got a rake out of the rake, broom, and paint closet. with the rake, i flipped some odd junk off the bags and pulled up another little black one tied at the top.

that was it, and inside was my long-awaited book, still happily in its wrapping, which prevented the dumpster ooze from soiling it.

jaysus...that's the first time i ever accidentally threw out something i really love the day after i got it.

part 2

I'm chuckling here bout ur question "do you ever find yourself doing [these kinda] things due to age?" actually, I don't think of it as due to age. Things like tossing out the book are pains in the butt, and while I don't remember (ha) doing stuff like that often when I was MUCH younger, I did do things in my 30s--when we lived in Bismarck and all the kids were toddlers or babies--like put my purse in the fridge when I was tired and distracted.

I blame throwing out the book on the same thing: distraction. Too many irons in the fire, too many worries all at the same time. I don't think age (other than providing brand new challenges just like all the other stages of life do) figgers in there much at all. But maybe I'm in denial. Who gives a crap? Sufficient to the day are the evils thereof, or however it goes.

Part 3

Well, we do get distracted. I find that my recent passage from a highly structured day to the present lack of structure leaves me wide open to total distraction. Of a very pleasant kind most of the time, I must add. But I have done stupid things just this past week because nothing is in its accustomed place (due to the effing realtor gig). Not only did I throw out my book in my lust for tidiness, but this aft I got a call frm
Billy the plumber. The check I wrote him last week did a nice bounce cuz it was frm the wrong checkbook...the right checkbook having disappeared into some drawer or box or bag in the trunk of Cathy's car (v handy as a hidey place for stuff in emergencies) due to the same need for tidiness above all. [note...i have half a dozen checkbooks, all with identical blue plastic covers, and most of them are from my present bank]

And when I called the g-d bank, I got some fellow with an indecipherable accent who tried to explain to me how checks work. I used strong words about the lack of care banks are showing these days, and he hung up on me. I had plenty of $$ in that bank to cover th check--but it was the wrong account. And since the banks are going freaky on us, they are not inclined to indulge nonbillionaires when they make mistakes. Ah, nuts. It's not our fault that our [my friend's and my] transit into our 70s has coincided with the present economic catastrophe.

Part 4

so far, nothing more has happened that i could blame on old age. the sun came up just fine, and the guy who panhandles outside of marvelous market said his business was "slow," and he laughed when i gave him a donation and told him everything was going to hell in a handbasket, and everyone is broke.

*O-L-H is from William Steig's incomparable book, C-D-B just sound it out....

A call to arms

I got this from Valerie this evening to give me strength and encouragement while I am NOT watching the debate. It fills me with despair that the woman debator tonight is even being considered a candidate for vice president of these united states.

I really love Anne Lamott's uniquely quirky take on everything, even God. This piece ran in Salon recently. Check out her column archive, also.

Here is the whole column from Salon:

A call to arms

How to handle the fury brought on by this election? Register voters, hit the streets, pray. Stop talking about her. Talk about Obama.

By Anne Lamott

Sept. 16, 2008 | I had to leave church Sunday morning when it turned out that the sermon was not about bearing up under desperate circumstances, when you feel like you're going crazy because something is being perpetrated upon you and your country that is so obscene that it simply cannot be happening.

I sat outside a 7-Eleven and had a sacramental Dove chocolate bar. Jeez: Here we are again. A man and a woman whose values we loathe and despise -- lying, rageful and incompetent, so dangerous to children and old people, to innocent people in every part of the world -- are being worshiped, exalted by the media, in a position to take a swing at all that is loveliest about this earth and what's left of our precious freedoms.

When I got home from church, I drank a bunch of water to metabolize the Dove bar and called my Jesuit friend, who I know hates these people, too. I asked, "Don't you think God finds these smug egomaniacs morally repellent? Recoils from their smugness as from hot flame?"

And he said, "Absolutely. They are everything He or She hates in a Christian."

I have been in a better mood ever since, and have decided not to even say this woman's name anymore, because she fills me with such existential doubt, such a sense of impending doom and disbelief, that only the Germans could possibly have words for it. Nor am I going to say the word "lipstick" again until after the election, as it would only be used against me. Or "polar bear," because that one image makes me sadder than even horrible old I can stand.

I hate to criticize. And I love to kill wolves as much as the next person does. But this woman takes such pride in her ignorance, doesn't have a doubt in the world about her messianic calling, that it makes anyone of decency feel nauseated -- spiritually, emotionally and physically ill.

I say that with love. As we say in Texas. (Also, we say, "Bless her heart.")

We felt this grief and nausea during the run-up to the war in Iraq. We felt it after the 2004 election. And now we feel it again.

But since there are still six weeks until the election, and since the stakes are as high as the sky, which should definitely not be forced to endure four more years of the same, we have got to get a grip. There are millions of people to register to vote, millions of dollars to be raised. We really cannot go around feeling flat and defeated, with the need to metabolize the rotten meat that this one particular candidate and the media have forced upon us.

One of the tiny metabolic suggestions I have to offer -- if, like me, you choose not to have her name on your lips, like an oozy cold sore (I say that with love) -- is to check out a Web site called the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. [Hey...XE here...I posted that a little while back] There you can find out what she and her husband would have named you if you had been their baby. My name, Anne, for instance, would be Krinkle Bearcat. John, her running mate, would be named Stick Freedom. George would be Crunk Petrol. And so on.

First of all, go find out what your own name would be. Then for one day refuse to use the name of these people who are so damaging to earth and to our very souls -- so, "I don't have to understand anything, it's all fuzzy math. Trust me. I'm the decider." From now on, when working for Obama, talk about Obama, talk about his policies, the issues, the economy, the war in Iraq, poverty, the last eight years, Joe Biden. You don't have to mention Crunk Petrol, or his sidekick, Shaver Razorback.

And you sure as hell don't have to mention Claw Washout -- she is absolutely, hands-down the most ludicrous person ever to be nominated. She's a "South Park" character. There was a mix-up. Mistakes were made.

Everything you need to know about how to bear up during these two months is already inside you. Go within: Work on your own emotional acre. Stand still, and hurt, and feel crazy. Then drink a lot of water, pray, meditate, rest. Rest is a spiritual act. Now, I am a reform Christian, so it is permissible for me to secretly believe that God hates this woman, too. I heard God slam down a couple of shooters while she was talking the other night.

Figure out one thing you can do every single day to be a part of the solution, concentrating on swing states. Money, walking precincts, registering voters, whatever. This is the only way miracles ever happen -- left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe. Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe. The great novelist E.L. Doctorow once said that writing a novel is like driving at night with the headlights on: You can only see a little ways in front of you, but you can make the whole journey this way. It is the truest of all things; the only way to write a book, raise a child, save the world.

As my anonymous pal Krinkle Bearcat once wrote: Laughter is carbonated holiness. It is chemo. So do whatever it takes to keep your sense of humor. Rent Christopher Guest movies, read books by Roz Chast and Maira Kalman. Picture Stick Freedom in his Batman underpants, having one of his episodes of rage alone in one of his seven bedrooms. Or having one of his bathroomy little conversations with Froth Moonshine. (Bless their hearts.) Try to remember that even Karl Rove has accused him of being a lying suck.

Reread everything Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower ever wrote. Write down that great line of Molly's, that "freedom fighters don't always win, but they're always right." Tape it next to your phone.

Call the loneliest person you know. Go flirt with the oldest person at the bookstore.

Fill up a box with really cool clothes that you haven't worn in a year, and take it to a thrift shop. Take gray water outside and water whatever is growing on your deck. This is not a bad metaphor to live by. I think it is why we are here. Drink more fluids. And take very gentle care of yourself and the people you most love: We need you now more than ever.