I've been so elated about the election that it has been difficult to think about what happened in California. I haven't wanted to lose steam... But, it's impossible to ignore the fact that we still face these disagreements with each other over basic civil rights.
As I sat at my Living the Questions seminar on Wednesday, I thought about how often I, as a left-leaning open-minded Christian, have sublimated my true beliefs in the face of more conservative views. I thought about how the entire time I was growing up there was this intuition in me that said, 'that doesn't sound like a loving God' when confronted with narrow interpretations of the divine. I feel evangelistic now - about my expansive view of God and my radical views of Jesus. I don't want to keep silent.
I got into an argument with Norm our contractor over this issue of marriage for all. He made what I'm sure he felt were innocuous statements about the timing of pushing this gay marriage stuff and said things that sound evil to me like: what about civil unions?
I lit into him. I gave my now well worn argument comparing civil unions to Brown vs. the Board of Ed and the ignominy of the concept of separate but equal... I hollered that, as a WASP man he had no idea what it meant to be asked to wait and be patient for rights that others enjoy. If it were 1922, I said, and I weren't allowed to vote, how long should I wait for you to wake up and acknowledge my right? When is it a good time for you? When might you get around to it, since you aren't the one suffering?
My pastor and her partner were married in California. I can't imagine waking up one morning to find that I am no longer married. Or that the marriage license I purchased from the state of Texas was invalid. Would they give me my money back? Or is it insult and injury for same sex couples who paid the state for the right to marry?
player
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Doug has to go back to Iowa today with Dwight to do some things for my mother-in-law. In this picture he's wearing his favorite T-shirt which says, "No one listens to me until I fart." I loathe this t-shirt even though I bought it for him. I loathe it but it makes me laugh because it's so silly and stupid and true. It's such a DAD shirt. We talk about all the inappropriate places he could wear it.So we are going to be missing daddy for the next few days. The boys are already pouty-lipped since he's the fun one and I'm the dictator.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Scary Fairy
Wilbur is just about to lose both his bottom front teeth - they are practically horizontal. This has prompted a lot of discussion about the tooth fairy. We all tell him about the Tooth Fairy like we discussed it before and he knows all about it, but it has become clear to me as the teeth get looser, that he is a bit concerned about some creature flying into his room as he sleeps...
Upon reflection, why wouldn't he be? I started wondering if I should really talk about this made up fairy. I was watching Wilbur's face this morning as Emery told him the things that would happen, what Wilbur would do with the tooth or teeth, where he'd put them, and what would happen next. Wilbur had a look of real terror on his face.
When I picked him up from school today, the first thing he said was, "Mom, what IS the tooth fairy?" Like - what is it - a person coming into my room, what?
Maybe this isn't such a good idea - telling him these fibs and scaring him about freaky fairies who like teeth. As we explained it the other day he said, "Why does she want the teeth?" And we all just stared at him, Emery, Doug and me... What do you say in the face of such logic? Why would she want the teeth? What shall she do with them?
I have no answers, only questions...
Upon reflection, why wouldn't he be? I started wondering if I should really talk about this made up fairy. I was watching Wilbur's face this morning as Emery told him the things that would happen, what Wilbur would do with the tooth or teeth, where he'd put them, and what would happen next. Wilbur had a look of real terror on his face.
When I picked him up from school today, the first thing he said was, "Mom, what IS the tooth fairy?" Like - what is it - a person coming into my room, what?
Maybe this isn't such a good idea - telling him these fibs and scaring him about freaky fairies who like teeth. As we explained it the other day he said, "Why does she want the teeth?" And we all just stared at him, Emery, Doug and me... What do you say in the face of such logic? Why would she want the teeth? What shall she do with them?
I have no answers, only questions...
Friday, November 07, 2008
'Cause Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
It's odd to outgrow a friendship.
I have never been any good at letting things slide with people. I have made my husband and other friends very uncomfortable by confronting a casual statement. And I have never been one of those southern women who is too nice to tell you how she feels. Often to a fault I tell and I should really just shut up. It would be a lot easier to let it go.
I guess I'm afraid that if I did that - let some stupidity or hate or false statement slide, where would I stop? Some examples --
someone recently said to me that all of this trouble with greed is bound to happen when people don't feel accountable to their creator... Couldn't let that go. So, if you're agnostic or atheist you can't be a good citizen? Is that the implication?
someone recently said to me that they wouldn't mind civil unions (not marriage though) but why now? Did they gay community really need to push this now? -- I certainly couldn't let this go. How long should someone wait for a basic human right? What if it were 1922 and I weren't allowed to vote? Should I forgo that fight because there's too much going on? Ridiculous.
And then there's that prayer. That prayer I received... AAAAHHH. That Prayer. It can't even be called a prayer it's so hateful. Calling reproductive choice sinful. Calling welfare recipients lazy. And the sender has no idea why this made me so angry. Of course not. The author of this foul prayer, Joe Wright, can't imagine it either. People who are so imbued with that hateful rhetoric seem to be incapable of understanding its impact. Their self-righteousness prevents it.
I know how flawed I am. I come before the divine again and again seeking forgiveness, admitting my failures. But I can't abide that KNOWING that some people have about who is right and who is evil. The more I learn the more I know that the less I know. The more open to the questions I am. And if my faith were so tenuous that a single circumstance could undo it, I guess I might hold fast to fantasy too. But my faith is not that way - the physical properties of this world, the social and economic realities of biblical times, the flawed human authorship of the Bible, the non-existence of hell -- I didn't grow up being taught all these things, but acknowledging them now doesn't shake my faith. My perceptions might alter, but my understanding of the divine merely grows.
I have never been any good at letting things slide with people. I have made my husband and other friends very uncomfortable by confronting a casual statement. And I have never been one of those southern women who is too nice to tell you how she feels. Often to a fault I tell and I should really just shut up. It would be a lot easier to let it go.
I guess I'm afraid that if I did that - let some stupidity or hate or false statement slide, where would I stop? Some examples --
someone recently said to me that all of this trouble with greed is bound to happen when people don't feel accountable to their creator... Couldn't let that go. So, if you're agnostic or atheist you can't be a good citizen? Is that the implication?
someone recently said to me that they wouldn't mind civil unions (not marriage though) but why now? Did they gay community really need to push this now? -- I certainly couldn't let this go. How long should someone wait for a basic human right? What if it were 1922 and I weren't allowed to vote? Should I forgo that fight because there's too much going on? Ridiculous.
And then there's that prayer. That prayer I received... AAAAHHH. That Prayer. It can't even be called a prayer it's so hateful. Calling reproductive choice sinful. Calling welfare recipients lazy. And the sender has no idea why this made me so angry. Of course not. The author of this foul prayer, Joe Wright, can't imagine it either. People who are so imbued with that hateful rhetoric seem to be incapable of understanding its impact. Their self-righteousness prevents it.
I know how flawed I am. I come before the divine again and again seeking forgiveness, admitting my failures. But I can't abide that KNOWING that some people have about who is right and who is evil. The more I learn the more I know that the less I know. The more open to the questions I am. And if my faith were so tenuous that a single circumstance could undo it, I guess I might hold fast to fantasy too. But my faith is not that way - the physical properties of this world, the social and economic realities of biblical times, the flawed human authorship of the Bible, the non-existence of hell -- I didn't grow up being taught all these things, but acknowledging them now doesn't shake my faith. My perceptions might alter, but my understanding of the divine merely grows.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Joe the Preacher
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Someone sent me an awful prayer - the subject of the email was, "A Prayer for Our Nation." If it had come by post I'd have burnt it. It was so hateful and awful that I have cut ties with the sender. The email attributed this prayer to Billy Graham, but that was wrong. It was by Joe Wright. The email said, "He is such a wise man, he really knows what's going on in the country right now!" But the prayer was delivered in 1996. I found it on snopes.
I am so tired of pablum Christianity with its black and white everything and swallow-it-whole mentality. So sick of just receiving junk like that via email - toxic, harmful and wasteful trash - and doing nothing about it. I'm so tired of hateful language casting me as a sinner for what I believe. I'm not going to take it anymore. Those right-wingers are on notice. No more facebook friendliness.
I won't write it. But I'll pray its opposite.
The religiosity that some cling to inspires this prayer.
We confess that we have ridiculed those who question and sat in judgment of them.
We have worshipped a hostile and unwelcoming god of our own design instead of learning about your nature and the lenses - Jesus, Mohammed and others - through whom we might know you.
We have endorsed exclusivity and called it Christ-like.
We have held tight to our money and called it faith.
We have neglected the needy because they haven't earned our love and called it prudent.
We have made the first first instead of the last first and denied a helping hand to those who need it.
We have decided we know better and characterized private choices as sinful acts.
We have taught our children to hate what they don't understand and called it Homeland Security.
We have abused power and called it a necessary means to an end.
We have ridiculed our neighbor's ideas and called it righteousness.
We have polluted the air and thought nothing of our responsibility to your creation and called it economics.
We have invented the values of our forefathers and pretended that they endorsed the idea of a Christian nation and called it our mission.
The religiosity that some cling to inspires this prayer.
We confess that we have ridiculed those who question and sat in judgment of them.
We have worshipped a hostile and unwelcoming god of our own design instead of learning about your nature and the lenses - Jesus, Mohammed and others - through whom we might know you.
We have endorsed exclusivity and called it Christ-like.
We have held tight to our money and called it faith.
We have neglected the needy because they haven't earned our love and called it prudent.
We have made the first first instead of the last first and denied a helping hand to those who need it.
We have decided we know better and characterized private choices as sinful acts.
We have taught our children to hate what they don't understand and called it Homeland Security.
We have abused power and called it a necessary means to an end.
We have ridiculed our neighbor's ideas and called it righteousness.
We have polluted the air and thought nothing of our responsibility to your creation and called it economics.
We have invented the values of our forefathers and pretended that they endorsed the idea of a Christian nation and called it our mission.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Segregation and Patsy Lynn Blackburn
My mother wrote this article for the community blog where she lives. I was very moved by it and it's the kind of thing I want to hold on to in my journal here for posterity. I no longer take my family history for granted, having lost my dad and his memories. I have been trying to devise ways to hold on to our stories, we Thompsons and Blackburns and Moons... This is a start.
The election is over, and I have been reflecting on its meaning. All of the pundits have been referring to this election as "historic." This is certainly true in two main ways--an African-American presidential nominee and the Republican nomination of a woman for vice-president. I would like to look at this election in a more personal way.
I was born in 1938 and grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas, a completely segregated city. Everything was divided into black and white: the schools, the swimming pools, the parks, the bus and train stations, the cemeteries, the movie theaters, the hospitals, the churches, the doctor's offices, the funeral homes, the neighborhoods, and the restaurants, diners, and coffee shops.
When my mother and I went downtown to shop (there were no malls back then), there were two water fountains by the elevators. One was labeled "Colored" and one "White."
I always wondered what would happen if I drank out of the wrong one. Being a child, I imagined that an alarm would sound and I would be arrested or something. So, of course, I never tried it or even asked. In public places, there had to be four restrooms divided by race and gender. (You can figure it out.) In smaller businesses, there were usually no restrooms for blacks at all. There was a very popular barbecue restaurant in what was called "Colored Town" called The Big Apple. Many whites ate there, but blacks were not allowed inside. They could go to a window in the back of the restaurant and order food to go. It may have been the original "Take Out" in Ft. Worth. I was never in a classroom with an African-American student until I started teaching in San Antonio in 1962. (San Antonio was integrated early and never had the racial conflicts that other southern cities had.)
This was the norm, and I accepted it. When I was in the 8th grade my parents and I moved, and I rode a city bus across town to and from school each day. The white people sat in the seats from the back door to the front. The black people had to sit from the back door to the rear. Of course, there are fewer seats back there. There was no sign or marker indicating this fact. Everyone just knew. Sometimes the seats at the back of the bus would all be taken, and black people had to stand crammed in the aisle in their section. The front of the bus might have plenty of empty seats, but no black people sat there, ever.
In 1968, I was teaching American History to 10th graders, and we were studying the Civil Rights Movement. I was telling the class about all these things I have written about here. The students seemed very involved in my lecture. When I got to the part about the buses, one young man raised his hand and said, "Mrs. Thompson, what did you do about it?"
There was a long silence on my part. I finally said, "Nothing." I went on to explain how I was just 13 years old and didn't think I could do anything about it even though it seemed unfair. That seemed like a lame excuse at the time and still does today.
Patsy
I was born in 1938 and grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas, a completely segregated city. Everything was divided into black and white: the schools, the swimming pools, the parks, the bus and train stations, the cemeteries, the movie theaters, the hospitals, the churches, the doctor's offices, the funeral homes, the neighborhoods, and the restaurants, diners, and coffee shops.
When my mother and I went downtown to shop (there were no malls back then), there were two water fountains by the elevators. One was labeled "Colored" and one "White."
I always wondered what would happen if I drank out of the wrong one. Being a child, I imagined that an alarm would sound and I would be arrested or something. So, of course, I never tried it or even asked. In public places, there had to be four restrooms divided by race and gender. (You can figure it out.) In smaller businesses, there were usually no restrooms for blacks at all. There was a very popular barbecue restaurant in what was called "Colored Town" called The Big Apple. Many whites ate there, but blacks were not allowed inside. They could go to a window in the back of the restaurant and order food to go. It may have been the original "Take Out" in Ft. Worth. I was never in a classroom with an African-American student until I started teaching in San Antonio in 1962. (San Antonio was integrated early and never had the racial conflicts that other southern cities had.)
This was the norm, and I accepted it. When I was in the 8th grade my parents and I moved, and I rode a city bus across town to and from school each day. The white people sat in the seats from the back door to the front. The black people had to sit from the back door to the rear. Of course, there are fewer seats back there. There was no sign or marker indicating this fact. Everyone just knew. Sometimes the seats at the back of the bus would all be taken, and black people had to stand crammed in the aisle in their section. The front of the bus might have plenty of empty seats, but no black people sat there, ever.
In 1968, I was teaching American History to 10th graders, and we were studying the Civil Rights Movement. I was telling the class about all these things I have written about here. The students seemed very involved in my lecture. When I got to the part about the buses, one young man raised his hand and said, "Mrs. Thompson, what did you do about it?"
There was a long silence on my part. I finally said, "Nothing." I went on to explain how I was just 13 years old and didn't think I could do anything about it even though it seemed unfair. That seemed like a lame excuse at the time and still does today.
Patsy
This is my mother in 1962:
And just a little later - 1969
Celebration
We went back and forth between the television and the laptop - checking results, drinking wine, fretting... and finally starting to feel very hopeful, even optimistic.
We got the children downstairs to watch McCain concede and the Barack Obama acceptance. We explained how important this was, and in some fashion why it was important. Not that we can even grasp it totally right now.
We were moved by John McCain. We were grateful for his grace. We were moved by the emotion on Jesse Jackson's face as the culmination of a lifetime of work brought tears. I don't pretend to speak for him. I couldn't possibly understand that kind of struggle. It moved us though.
Now we pray.
I pray for a safe, sobered and serious society as we anticipate January 20th.
We got the children downstairs to watch McCain concede and the Barack Obama acceptance. We explained how important this was, and in some fashion why it was important. Not that we can even grasp it totally right now.
We were moved by John McCain. We were grateful for his grace. We were moved by the emotion on Jesse Jackson's face as the culmination of a lifetime of work brought tears. I don't pretend to speak for him. I couldn't possibly understand that kind of struggle. It moved us though.
Now we pray.
I pray for a safe, sobered and serious society as we anticipate January 20th.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Cry Babies
Gonna be some unhappy people in the world over the next few days.
I know how they feel.
They should remember- those people who are certain that Obama is the wrong choice, not experienced enough, too liberal - they should remember that in THEIR judgement, George W. Bush was the right choice for America.
Sue me if I don't trust their instincts on Barack Obama.
Hello Heartbreak. I give a shout out to my contractor's carpenters who listen to hate-filled talk radio in my home and put stickers on their trucks that say NOBama. They are going to be some sad dudes. They are also Seahawks fans. They have so much to be sad about.
I've put up with their radio and their quiet anger and their stickers for months now because this realization has been building and building that something big was coming. No need to rub their noses in it. No need even to discuss it. It was coming and there was no stopping it.
I know how they feel.
They should remember- those people who are certain that Obama is the wrong choice, not experienced enough, too liberal - they should remember that in THEIR judgement, George W. Bush was the right choice for America.
Sue me if I don't trust their instincts on Barack Obama.
Hello Heartbreak. I give a shout out to my contractor's carpenters who listen to hate-filled talk radio in my home and put stickers on their trucks that say NOBama. They are going to be some sad dudes. They are also Seahawks fans. They have so much to be sad about.
I've put up with their radio and their quiet anger and their stickers for months now because this realization has been building and building that something big was coming. No need to rub their noses in it. No need even to discuss it. It was coming and there was no stopping it.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Anxiety
When you asked my brother-in-law David how he was doing sometimes he'd say, "Aw, I'm as anxious as a three-legged cat in the middle of the interstate."
That's how I felt all weekend, and it's clearly not only my premonition about the UT/Tech game... It's this election.
In 1992 I was in grad school at Ohio U and we were so excited about Bill Clinton. That Wednesday morning after the election was glorious and full of promise. I could never have predicted the turn of events after that time, but on that morning everything was perfect.
I feel that same sense of excitement this time but everything feels less pure. Is it my age? Am I cynical? Or are we less innocent now? I think it's me. And I also think it's the circumstance.
When I worked at Amy's we had a grease trap. That thing had to be cleaned every month or 2, I can't remember how often. But when Roto-rooter came with their truck and hooked up that hose, the smell was, as Emery once said about a terrible smell, The Devil. It was the worst thing I've ever smelled or seen. Sometimes you'd see a bit of whatever was being pumped out.
That's what President Obama or John McCain is going to be doing for the first year. Cleaning the grease trap. When whoever gets in gets in and opens up that trap to see what's inside, I think it's going to be smelly and foul.
That's how I felt all weekend, and it's clearly not only my premonition about the UT/Tech game... It's this election.
In 1992 I was in grad school at Ohio U and we were so excited about Bill Clinton. That Wednesday morning after the election was glorious and full of promise. I could never have predicted the turn of events after that time, but on that morning everything was perfect.
I feel that same sense of excitement this time but everything feels less pure. Is it my age? Am I cynical? Or are we less innocent now? I think it's me. And I also think it's the circumstance.
When I worked at Amy's we had a grease trap. That thing had to be cleaned every month or 2, I can't remember how often. But when Roto-rooter came with their truck and hooked up that hose, the smell was, as Emery once said about a terrible smell, The Devil. It was the worst thing I've ever smelled or seen. Sometimes you'd see a bit of whatever was being pumped out.
That's what President Obama or John McCain is going to be doing for the first year. Cleaning the grease trap. When whoever gets in gets in and opens up that trap to see what's inside, I think it's going to be smelly and foul.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Great Pumpkin & WWI Flying Ace
I recorded It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and we watched it the other night. When it got to the part of the show where Snoopy is the ace pilot sitting atop his dog house, trying to shoot down the Red Baron, Wilbur laughed harder than either Doug or I have EVER heard him laugh. EVER. ever.
He laughed so hard he started choking. Then he laughed so hard that he started making this gutteral noise in the back of his throat. Then he laughed so hard he began to do this sort of high-pitched sighing. He laughed so hard that Emery, Doug and me almost wet our pants. It must've gone on for 10 minutes.
There is nothing like hearing a child lose control with laughter. When he watched it again, the same thing happened. And when Snoopy is downed in the French countryside and starts traveling on foot through France (no one would ever write that into a children's show anymore, sadly) he just guffawed. Oh, it was hilarious.
He laughed so hard he started choking. Then he laughed so hard that he started making this gutteral noise in the back of his throat. Then he laughed so hard he began to do this sort of high-pitched sighing. He laughed so hard that Emery, Doug and me almost wet our pants. It must've gone on for 10 minutes.
There is nothing like hearing a child lose control with laughter. When he watched it again, the same thing happened. And when Snoopy is downed in the French countryside and starts traveling on foot through France (no one would ever write that into a children's show anymore, sadly) he just guffawed. Oh, it was hilarious.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Hunny Bird
Wilbur has this little stuffed hummingbird that is teacher gave him last year. He calls it his hunny bird (sometimes it sounds like he's saying hunningbird or huntingbird). He took it with him this morning to school. He is so tender.Fractals
I saw this fascinating program on Nova about Fractals and the research being done based on their properties. I want to learn more about this. I told Leigh yesterday that when you are lousy at math, as I always was, you never get to the gorgeous stuff of math; you wallow in ugly, boring math. And that's where I lived. So, seeing something like this and understanding it, conceptually at least, is exciting.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
a Bee in my Bonnet
Yesterday I actually got a bee in my bonnet; it flew into my hair. I didn't realize it was a bee until I reached into my hair to pull out the leaf or the bug or whatever had just hit me on the head with the force of a rain drop fallin' on my head. As I tried to find this thing in my hair I felt a stinging sensation on my right ring finger and a moment after that the same sensation on my head.
Panic!
I saw two guys on the walking trail with leaf blowers on their backs and I ran up to them and yelled, "I've got a bee in my hair and I can't find it!" The leaf-blower-guy pulled his glove off and started digging through my hair. He located the bee and threw it with force toward the ground and stomped on it.
I felt bad about that since the bees have had so much trouble lately, but I was so grateful to the man that I put my hand on his shoulder and said thank you about a million times. He smiled and nodded to me. I realized that neither he nor his partner seemed to speak any English and I wondered what they had seen coming toward them, what had they understood about what was happening as I hollered and waved my hands and gestured toward my hair?
I have always relied on the kindness of strangers.
Panic!
I saw two guys on the walking trail with leaf blowers on their backs and I ran up to them and yelled, "I've got a bee in my hair and I can't find it!" The leaf-blower-guy pulled his glove off and started digging through my hair. He located the bee and threw it with force toward the ground and stomped on it.
I felt bad about that since the bees have had so much trouble lately, but I was so grateful to the man that I put my hand on his shoulder and said thank you about a million times. He smiled and nodded to me. I realized that neither he nor his partner seemed to speak any English and I wondered what they had seen coming toward them, what had they understood about what was happening as I hollered and waved my hands and gestured toward my hair?
I have always relied on the kindness of strangers.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
No Offense But...
Emery often begins a sentence with this phrase, "No offense Mom, but..." Each time I tell him that whenever he begins a sentence this way, he causes me offense.
A parent gave me some very, very good advice, which I find almost impossible to heed: Don't Take It Personally.
She said 'don't take it all so personally, all this stuff they do and the things they say and their boorish behavior.' She told me that by kid 3 of 4 she started to realize this in her own life - that when they complained or tried to act cool or said insulting things or said, "no offense but..." she just wouldn't take it personally.
When I am able to apply this principle, I am amazed at the result. But, even though I am a mother, I am clearly just a regular person as well. And when I work hard all day and then come home and really try to make a delicious and nutritious dinner using organic ingredients after purchasing these items with my re-usable bags and someone crinkles up his nose and makes a face like he is being asked to smell shit and says, "No offense Mom but this stuff STIIIIINNNNKKKKSSSS!" - call me psycho, but I take it as a personal affront.
I realize though that it's not personal. Sometimes they just say crap to say crap. Sometimes they just want to hear themselves talk. When did I decide that a 9-year-old was the arbiter of taste or a good judge of what's delicious? And it's no big deal. I know how nutritious and delicious it is, and I know he's going to eat it too. I enjoy that power. So, let it go Paige. Don't take it so personally. Remember who has got the upper hand here. And let him be.
A parent gave me some very, very good advice, which I find almost impossible to heed: Don't Take It Personally.
She said 'don't take it all so personally, all this stuff they do and the things they say and their boorish behavior.' She told me that by kid 3 of 4 she started to realize this in her own life - that when they complained or tried to act cool or said insulting things or said, "no offense but..." she just wouldn't take it personally.
When I am able to apply this principle, I am amazed at the result. But, even though I am a mother, I am clearly just a regular person as well. And when I work hard all day and then come home and really try to make a delicious and nutritious dinner using organic ingredients after purchasing these items with my re-usable bags and someone crinkles up his nose and makes a face like he is being asked to smell shit and says, "No offense Mom but this stuff STIIIIINNNNKKKKSSSS!" - call me psycho, but I take it as a personal affront.
I realize though that it's not personal. Sometimes they just say crap to say crap. Sometimes they just want to hear themselves talk. When did I decide that a 9-year-old was the arbiter of taste or a good judge of what's delicious? And it's no big deal. I know how nutritious and delicious it is, and I know he's going to eat it too. I enjoy that power. So, let it go Paige. Don't take it so personally. Remember who has got the upper hand here. And let him be.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
I Heart New Yorker
This is scathingly brilliant.
My Gal
by George Saunders September 22, 2008
Explaining how she felt when John McCain offered her the Vice-Presidential spot, my Vice-Presidential candidate, Governor Sarah Palin, said something very profound: “I answered him ‘Yes’ because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can’t blink. So I didn’t blink then even when asked to run as his running mate.”
Isn’t that so true? I know that many times, in my life, while living it, someone would come up and, because of I had good readiness, in terms of how I was wired, when they asked that—whatever they asked—I would just not blink, because, knowing that, if I did blink, or even wink, that is weakness, therefore you can’t, you just don’t. You could, but no—you aren’t.
That is just how I am.
Do you know the difference between me and a Hockey Mom who has forgot her lipstick?
A dog collar.
Do you know the difference between me and a dog collar smeared with lipstick?
Not a damn thing.
We are essentially wired identical.
So, when Barack Obama says he will put some lipstick on my pig, I am, like, Are you calling me a pig? If so, thanks! Pigs are the most non-Élite of all barnyard animals. And also, if you put lipstick on my pig, do you know what the difference will be between that pig and a pit bull? I’ll tell you: a pit bull can easily kill a pig. And, as the pig dies, guess what the Hockey Mom is doing? Going to her car, putting on more lipstick, so that, upon returning, finding that pig dead, she once again looks identical to that pit bull, which, staying on mission, the two of them step over the dead pig, looking exactly like twins, except the pit bull is scratching his lower ass with one frantic leg, whereas the Hockey Mom is carrying an extra hockey stick in case Todd breaks his again. But both are going, like, Ha ha, where’s that dumb pig now? Dead, that’s who, and also: not a smidge of lipstick.
A lose-lose for the pig.
There’s a lesson in that, I think.
Who does that pig represent, and that collar, and that Hockey Mom, and that pit bull?
You figure it out. Then give me a call.
Seriously, give me a call.
Now, let us discuss the Élites. There are two kinds of folks: Élites and Regulars. Why people love Sarah Palin is, she is a Regular. That is also why they love me. She did not go to some Élite Ivy League college, which I also did not. Her and me, actually, did not go to the very same Ivy League school. Although she is younger than me, so therefore she didn’t go there slightly earlier than I didn’t go there. But, had I been younger, we possibly could have not graduated in the exact same class. That would have been fun. Sarah Palin is hot. Hot for a politician. Or someone you just see in a store. But, happily, I did not go to college at all, having not finished high school, due to I killed a man. But had I gone to college, trust me, it would not have been some Ivy League Élite-breeding factory but, rather, a community college in danger of losing its accreditation, built right on a fault zone, riddled with asbestos, and also, the crack-addicted professors are all dyslexic.
Sarah Palin was also the mayor of a very small town. To tell the truth, this is where my qualifications begin to outstrip even hers. I have never been the mayor of anything. I can’t even spell right. I had help with the above, but now— Murray, note to Murray: do not correct what follows. Lets shoe the people how I rilly spel Mooray and punshuate so thay can c how reglar I am, and ther 4 fit to leed the nashun, do to: not sum mistir fansy pans.
OK Mooray. Get corecting agin!
Thanks, Murray, you’re fabulous. Very good at what you do. Actually, Murray, come to think of it, you are so good, I suspect you are some kind of Élite. You are fired, Murray, as soon as this article is done. I’m going to hire someone Regular, who is not so excellent, and lives off the salt of the land and the fat of his brow and the sweat of his earth. Although I hope he’s not a screw-up.
I’m finding it hard to concentrate, as my eyes are killing me, due to I have not blinked since I started writing this. And, me being Regular, it takes a long time for me to write something this long.
Where was I? Ah, yes: I hate Élites. Which is why, whenever I am having brain surgery, or eye surgery, which is sometimes necessary due to all my non-blinking, I always hire some random Regular guy, with shaking hands if possible, who is also a drunk, scared of the sight of blood, and harbors a secret dislike for me.
Now, let’s talk about slogans. Ours is: Country First. Think about it. When you think of what should come first, what does? Us ourselves? No. That would be selfish. Our personal families? Selfish. God? God is good, I love Him, but, as our slogan suggests, no, sorry, God, You are not First. No, you don’t, Lord! How about: the common good of all mankind! Is that First? Don’t make me laugh with your weak blinking! No! Mercy is not First and wisdom is not First and love is super but way near the back, and ditto with patience and discernment and compassion and all that happy crap, they are all back behind Country, in the back of my S.U.V., which— Here is an example! Say I am about to run over a nun or orphan, or an orphan who grew up to become a nun—which I admire that, that is cool, good bootstrapping there, Sister—but then God or whomever goes, “It is My will that you hit that orphaned nun, do not ask Me why, don’t you dare, and I say unto thee, if you do not hit that nun, via a skillful swerve, your Country is going to suffer, and don’t ask Me how, specifically, as I have not decided that yet!” Well, I am going to do my best to get that nun in one felt swope, because, at the Convention, at which my Vice-Presidential candidate kicked mucho butt, what did the signs there say? Did they say “Orphaned Nuns First” and then there is a picture of a sad little nun with a hobo pack?
My Gal
by George Saunders September 22, 2008
Explaining how she felt when John McCain offered her the Vice-Presidential spot, my Vice-Presidential candidate, Governor Sarah Palin, said something very profound: “I answered him ‘Yes’ because I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can’t blink, you have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of this country and victory in the war, you can’t blink. So I didn’t blink then even when asked to run as his running mate.”
Isn’t that so true? I know that many times, in my life, while living it, someone would come up and, because of I had good readiness, in terms of how I was wired, when they asked that—whatever they asked—I would just not blink, because, knowing that, if I did blink, or even wink, that is weakness, therefore you can’t, you just don’t. You could, but no—you aren’t.
That is just how I am.
Do you know the difference between me and a Hockey Mom who has forgot her lipstick?
A dog collar.
Do you know the difference between me and a dog collar smeared with lipstick?
Not a damn thing.
We are essentially wired identical.
So, when Barack Obama says he will put some lipstick on my pig, I am, like, Are you calling me a pig? If so, thanks! Pigs are the most non-Élite of all barnyard animals. And also, if you put lipstick on my pig, do you know what the difference will be between that pig and a pit bull? I’ll tell you: a pit bull can easily kill a pig. And, as the pig dies, guess what the Hockey Mom is doing? Going to her car, putting on more lipstick, so that, upon returning, finding that pig dead, she once again looks identical to that pit bull, which, staying on mission, the two of them step over the dead pig, looking exactly like twins, except the pit bull is scratching his lower ass with one frantic leg, whereas the Hockey Mom is carrying an extra hockey stick in case Todd breaks his again. But both are going, like, Ha ha, where’s that dumb pig now? Dead, that’s who, and also: not a smidge of lipstick.
A lose-lose for the pig.
There’s a lesson in that, I think.
Who does that pig represent, and that collar, and that Hockey Mom, and that pit bull?
You figure it out. Then give me a call.
Seriously, give me a call.
Now, let us discuss the Élites. There are two kinds of folks: Élites and Regulars. Why people love Sarah Palin is, she is a Regular. That is also why they love me. She did not go to some Élite Ivy League college, which I also did not. Her and me, actually, did not go to the very same Ivy League school. Although she is younger than me, so therefore she didn’t go there slightly earlier than I didn’t go there. But, had I been younger, we possibly could have not graduated in the exact same class. That would have been fun. Sarah Palin is hot. Hot for a politician. Or someone you just see in a store. But, happily, I did not go to college at all, having not finished high school, due to I killed a man. But had I gone to college, trust me, it would not have been some Ivy League Élite-breeding factory but, rather, a community college in danger of losing its accreditation, built right on a fault zone, riddled with asbestos, and also, the crack-addicted professors are all dyslexic.
Sarah Palin was also the mayor of a very small town. To tell the truth, this is where my qualifications begin to outstrip even hers. I have never been the mayor of anything. I can’t even spell right. I had help with the above, but now— Murray, note to Murray: do not correct what follows. Lets shoe the people how I rilly spel Mooray and punshuate so thay can c how reglar I am, and ther 4 fit to leed the nashun, do to: not sum mistir fansy pans.
OK Mooray. Get corecting agin!
Thanks, Murray, you’re fabulous. Very good at what you do. Actually, Murray, come to think of it, you are so good, I suspect you are some kind of Élite. You are fired, Murray, as soon as this article is done. I’m going to hire someone Regular, who is not so excellent, and lives off the salt of the land and the fat of his brow and the sweat of his earth. Although I hope he’s not a screw-up.
I’m finding it hard to concentrate, as my eyes are killing me, due to I have not blinked since I started writing this. And, me being Regular, it takes a long time for me to write something this long.
Where was I? Ah, yes: I hate Élites. Which is why, whenever I am having brain surgery, or eye surgery, which is sometimes necessary due to all my non-blinking, I always hire some random Regular guy, with shaking hands if possible, who is also a drunk, scared of the sight of blood, and harbors a secret dislike for me.
Now, let’s talk about slogans. Ours is: Country First. Think about it. When you think of what should come first, what does? Us ourselves? No. That would be selfish. Our personal families? Selfish. God? God is good, I love Him, but, as our slogan suggests, no, sorry, God, You are not First. No, you don’t, Lord! How about: the common good of all mankind! Is that First? Don’t make me laugh with your weak blinking! No! Mercy is not First and wisdom is not First and love is super but way near the back, and ditto with patience and discernment and compassion and all that happy crap, they are all back behind Country, in the back of my S.U.V., which— Here is an example! Say I am about to run over a nun or orphan, or an orphan who grew up to become a nun—which I admire that, that is cool, good bootstrapping there, Sister—but then God or whomever goes, “It is My will that you hit that orphaned nun, do not ask Me why, don’t you dare, and I say unto thee, if you do not hit that nun, via a skillful swerve, your Country is going to suffer, and don’t ask Me how, specifically, as I have not decided that yet!” Well, I am going to do my best to get that nun in one felt swope, because, at the Convention, at which my Vice-Presidential candidate kicked mucho butt, what did the signs there say? Did they say “Orphaned Nuns First” and then there is a picture of a sad little nun with a hobo pack?
Thursday, October 23, 2008
How Deep is Your Love
I was listening to How Deep is Your Love today and I had a memory of my first dance. The boy was Van Wisdom, it was 6th grade (Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School in San Antonio) and the song was How Deep Is Your Love...
I remember a bunch of girls running up to me and saying, "Van's looking for you! Van's looking for you! He's going to ask you to dance!"
Now, in those days Van Wisdom was hot stuff and a little out of my league. I didn't even know he knew who I was.
It turns out there was a reason he was drawn to me... It turns out, I found out years later, that he was gay. In fact, even more years later, he died of AIDS. His daddy is a baptist preacher and he, Charles Wisdom, wrote a book about his son. It's a book espoused by Exodus International, a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian organization that promotes "the message of Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ."
But, I had totally forgotten about my first dance, and to this song. The song held a special place in my memory but I wasn't really sure why.
I remember a bunch of girls running up to me and saying, "Van's looking for you! Van's looking for you! He's going to ask you to dance!"
Now, in those days Van Wisdom was hot stuff and a little out of my league. I didn't even know he knew who I was.
It turns out there was a reason he was drawn to me... It turns out, I found out years later, that he was gay. In fact, even more years later, he died of AIDS. His daddy is a baptist preacher and he, Charles Wisdom, wrote a book about his son. It's a book espoused by Exodus International, a nonprofit, interdenominational Christian organization that promotes "the message of Freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ."
But, I had totally forgotten about my first dance, and to this song. The song held a special place in my memory but I wasn't really sure why.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Republican Rep. Michele I'm-a-FOOL Bachmann
I'm sorry, this is just pathetic:
Bachmann said Tuesday she probably should have watched "Hardball" to see what it was like before she went on it.
What is it with this rash of stupid, silly, bubble-headed, inane, I-want-to-use-the-C-word, irrelevant, ill-informed, obtuse, fatuous, half-wit women? Do you only need a nice pair of legs and some sort of hair-do to be a woman in politics? Where are the women like me? She makes fools of us all.
This FOOL, IDIOT of a woman goes on Hardball and talks about how she doesn't like Obama because she doesn't think Socialism is good for America, she calls him anti-american and she says we ought to find others with anti-american views and do something about them. There are so many inanities that one doesn't know where to begin!
1. Barack Obama isn't advocating socialism, Henry Paulson is doing that.
2. Ferreting out anti-Americans isn't socialist behavior; it's fascist.
3. Going on any program, I don't care if it's Captain Billy's Whizbag, without watching the program is the mark of a fool and certainly someone too stupid to hold public office.
4. Even if she hadn't researched the program on which she was appearing, how did that entice her to say what she did?
I am tired of stupid people trying to get paid with taxpayer money to do a job for which they would never be hired, but feel perfectly comfortable getting elected to do. This woman is a scourge and should be skewered.
Bachmann said Tuesday she probably should have watched "Hardball" to see what it was like before she went on it.
What is it with this rash of stupid, silly, bubble-headed, inane, I-want-to-use-the-C-word, irrelevant, ill-informed, obtuse, fatuous, half-wit women? Do you only need a nice pair of legs and some sort of hair-do to be a woman in politics? Where are the women like me? She makes fools of us all.
This FOOL, IDIOT of a woman goes on Hardball and talks about how she doesn't like Obama because she doesn't think Socialism is good for America, she calls him anti-american and she says we ought to find others with anti-american views and do something about them. There are so many inanities that one doesn't know where to begin!
1. Barack Obama isn't advocating socialism, Henry Paulson is doing that.
2. Ferreting out anti-Americans isn't socialist behavior; it's fascist.
3. Going on any program, I don't care if it's Captain Billy's Whizbag, without watching the program is the mark of a fool and certainly someone too stupid to hold public office.
4. Even if she hadn't researched the program on which she was appearing, how did that entice her to say what she did?
I am tired of stupid people trying to get paid with taxpayer money to do a job for which they would never be hired, but feel perfectly comfortable getting elected to do. This woman is a scourge and should be skewered.
No Bad Dogs!
As I think about wanting no more bad news today, I am reminded of Barbara Woodhouse, a dog trainer who used to be on television quite often when I was growing up. She wrote a book called, No Bad Dogs:
Barbara Woodhouse, "the lady with the dogs," is already familiar to millions of Americans through the publication of her best-selling book, No Bad Dogs, her frequent appearances on such national television shows as "60 Minutes," "The Tonight show," "Donahue," "Merv Griffin," "Good Morning America," and the syndication of her enormously popular television series, "Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way."
In this irresistible book, Barbara Woodhouse passes on to the reader the simple, effective techniques as well as the infectious, positive attitude...
I feel this way about bad news: No Bad News! I am so tired of bad news all day that I'll have none of it today.
I have good news today. Good news, good news, good news, good news, good news!
It makes me think of an old spiritual - Ain't That Good News?
I got a robe in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I got a robe in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I'm gonna lay down this world
I'm gonna shoulder up my cross
I'm gonna carry it home to my Jesus -
ain't that good news, my Lord, ain't that good news?
I got shoes in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I got shoes in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I'm gonna lay down this world
I'm gonna shoulder up my cross
I'm gonna carry it home to my Jesus -
ain't that good news, my Lord, ain't that good news?
I got a crown in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I got a crown in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I'm gonna lay down this world
I'm gonna shoulder up my cross
I'm gonna carry it home to my Jesus -
ain't that good news, my Lord, ain't that good news?
Barbara Woodhouse, "the lady with the dogs," is already familiar to millions of Americans through the publication of her best-selling book, No Bad Dogs, her frequent appearances on such national television shows as "60 Minutes," "The Tonight show," "Donahue," "Merv Griffin," "Good Morning America," and the syndication of her enormously popular television series, "Training Dogs the Woodhouse Way."
In this irresistible book, Barbara Woodhouse passes on to the reader the simple, effective techniques as well as the infectious, positive attitude...
I feel this way about bad news: No Bad News! I am so tired of bad news all day that I'll have none of it today.
I have good news today. Good news, good news, good news, good news, good news!
It makes me think of an old spiritual - Ain't That Good News?
I got a robe in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I got a robe in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I'm gonna lay down this world
I'm gonna shoulder up my cross
I'm gonna carry it home to my Jesus -
ain't that good news, my Lord, ain't that good news?
I got shoes in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I got shoes in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I'm gonna lay down this world
I'm gonna shoulder up my cross
I'm gonna carry it home to my Jesus -
ain't that good news, my Lord, ain't that good news?
I got a crown in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I got a crown in that kingdom - ain't that good news?
I'm gonna lay down this world
I'm gonna shoulder up my cross
I'm gonna carry it home to my Jesus -
ain't that good news, my Lord, ain't that good news?
Pickles and Johnsons
We watched a PBS documentary last night on LBJ which was, of course, fascinating. Making Lyndon interesting is about as easy as falling off a log. Jake Pickle was one of the sources and it was fun to see him given that I knew him through his grandson Bennett.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Genghis Khan Halloween Costume
Emery has wanted to be Genghis Khan for Halloween for the past 2 or 3 years and I just can't ever get it together. Some of his costumes:
Poseidon
St. Francis of Assisi
Captain Hook
The Cat in the Hat
A Cowboy
Today I enlisted D to help, as I think he has more design talent than I do (although the Poseidon costume I did for Emery was pretty amazing)... We have to decide historically if we are going for a young Genghis or an older, statesman Genghis.
Wilbur is Darth Vader and I just bought that costume no problem. he looks so cute in it too - he's all blond and blue-eyed and gorgeous in that jet black costume.
Poseidon
St. Francis of Assisi
Captain Hook
The Cat in the Hat
A Cowboy
Today I enlisted D to help, as I think he has more design talent than I do (although the Poseidon costume I did for Emery was pretty amazing)... We have to decide historically if we are going for a young Genghis or an older, statesman Genghis.
Wilbur is Darth Vader and I just bought that costume no problem. he looks so cute in it too - he's all blond and blue-eyed and gorgeous in that jet black costume.
Render unto Caesar...
So the lectionary on Sunday was this story from Matthew, where Jesus answers the religious leaders by looking at a coin and saying, "give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."
It's curious to me that so many Christians on the far right are so concerned with money in a way that seems unlike Jesus even a little bit. John McCain has rallied his troops with phrases like 'spreading the wealth around' as if any clear-eyed, right-thinking person would find that concept anathema.
But, isn't that what's fair? Isn't that what Jesus would do? And if we belong to God, if God wants us to give HIM what is HIS, isn't that our minds, souls and hearts?
I don't get to choose that my tax money, from this pacifist who doesn't believe in war, I don't get to choose where it goes. And I am patriotic enough to accept that I live in this country, this community; not everyone thinks as I do - not everyone is a pacifist... And so, we pay our tax and some of that money (a great deal of it) supports ideologies and actions that I find reprehensible. But I am an American. I am part of that community. And I pay into the greater. The thing that is great about America is that we all support the whole and the whole is utterly diverse - in culture, opinion, priority - and that diversity is our strength.
So, pay attention, all you closed-minded, right-sided fundamentalist Sadducees: Give it up! Pay to the government that which is the Government's. Be about the business of belonging to God, if that's your thing. Pay what you owe and participate in this community of divergent ideas. Don't worry about that money - if it's due then pay it. Get busy with more important matters, like loving God with all your heart, mind and soul and then love your neighbor as yourself.
It's curious to me that so many Christians on the far right are so concerned with money in a way that seems unlike Jesus even a little bit. John McCain has rallied his troops with phrases like 'spreading the wealth around' as if any clear-eyed, right-thinking person would find that concept anathema.
But, isn't that what's fair? Isn't that what Jesus would do? And if we belong to God, if God wants us to give HIM what is HIS, isn't that our minds, souls and hearts?
I don't get to choose that my tax money, from this pacifist who doesn't believe in war, I don't get to choose where it goes. And I am patriotic enough to accept that I live in this country, this community; not everyone thinks as I do - not everyone is a pacifist... And so, we pay our tax and some of that money (a great deal of it) supports ideologies and actions that I find reprehensible. But I am an American. I am part of that community. And I pay into the greater. The thing that is great about America is that we all support the whole and the whole is utterly diverse - in culture, opinion, priority - and that diversity is our strength.
So, pay attention, all you closed-minded, right-sided fundamentalist Sadducees: Give it up! Pay to the government that which is the Government's. Be about the business of belonging to God, if that's your thing. Pay what you owe and participate in this community of divergent ideas. Don't worry about that money - if it's due then pay it. Get busy with more important matters, like loving God with all your heart, mind and soul and then love your neighbor as yourself.
Friday, October 17, 2008
When I hear Plumber I think of Nixon. I think, CREEP
Remember The Plumbers? Nixon's Plumbers? Am I the only one who called up this reference and thought, "hmmm... when I hear Plumber I think Break-in." I think G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt. I am not that old, but I've seen All The President's Men. I've read John Dean's book, Blind Ambition. Don't we all remember those guys?
From wikipedia:
The White House Plumbers or simply the Plumbers is the popular name given to the covert White House Special Investigations Unit established July 24, 1971 during the presidency of Richard Nixon. Its job was to stop the leaking (hence "plumbers") of classified information to the news media during the Nixon administration. Its members branched into more nefarious projects working for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP, or CREEP), including the Watergate break-ins and the ensuing Watergate scandal.
This poor guy Joe. He just wanted to ask a question. Now the media is combing through his statements and vetting him as if he were the McCain running mate. The guy hasn't always paid all of his taxes, isn't actually a licensed plumber and doesn't make any where near 250K. Tax analysts are even claiming that the guy would get a tax break under the Obama plan when and if he buys the business and is licensed and plumbing.
This guy probably wished John McCain had never brought up his name. Now he's in the NY Times (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/joe-in-the-spotlight/?hp) and he sort of looks like a liar. Now the IRS is going to come after him for the back taxes he owes and people are making money off him selling t-shirts and coffee mugs.
Just remember: Plumbers Bad.
From wikipedia:
The White House Plumbers or simply the Plumbers is the popular name given to the covert White House Special Investigations Unit established July 24, 1971 during the presidency of Richard Nixon. Its job was to stop the leaking (hence "plumbers") of classified information to the news media during the Nixon administration. Its members branched into more nefarious projects working for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP, or CREEP), including the Watergate break-ins and the ensuing Watergate scandal.
This poor guy Joe. He just wanted to ask a question. Now the media is combing through his statements and vetting him as if he were the McCain running mate. The guy hasn't always paid all of his taxes, isn't actually a licensed plumber and doesn't make any where near 250K. Tax analysts are even claiming that the guy would get a tax break under the Obama plan when and if he buys the business and is licensed and plumbing.
This guy probably wished John McCain had never brought up his name. Now he's in the NY Times (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/joe-in-the-spotlight/?hp) and he sort of looks like a liar. Now the IRS is going to come after him for the back taxes he owes and people are making money off him selling t-shirts and coffee mugs.
Just remember: Plumbers Bad.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Living the Questions
I started a progressive Christian group study last night, the curriculum of which is called "Living the Questions." It's discussion and a DVD presentation. Some of the church leaders in the DVD are people I have admired for some time and others are new to me. Yvette Flunder, John Shelby Spong, Mel White and many others.
I love Spong - and I loved what he said in the piece we saw last night. He said that the times in the church's history when we were most certain were the times when we were acting most heinously - burning people at the stake, starting holy wars.
There is a discomfort with being in the mystery and living with uncertainty. Not knowing for certain what happens when we die is frightening. Not knowing if you are right is disconcerting. But I find if I am willing to challenge boldly-held notions, I come back to my core beliefs with conviction and clarity.
I kept thinking last night about the pastor in A Prayer for Owen Meany who is so full of doubt...
I love Spong - and I loved what he said in the piece we saw last night. He said that the times in the church's history when we were most certain were the times when we were acting most heinously - burning people at the stake, starting holy wars.
There is a discomfort with being in the mystery and living with uncertainty. Not knowing for certain what happens when we die is frightening. Not knowing if you are right is disconcerting. But I find if I am willing to challenge boldly-held notions, I come back to my core beliefs with conviction and clarity.
I kept thinking last night about the pastor in A Prayer for Owen Meany who is so full of doubt...
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Friend of Bill
This is an interesting article about Bill Ayers in The Wallstreet Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122402888900234543.html
"Waving the bloody shirt" was the phrase once used to describe the standard demagogic tactic of the late 19th century, when memories of the Civil War were still vivid and loyalists of both parties could be moved to "vote as they shot." As the years passed and the memories faded, the shirt got gorier, the waving more frantic.
In 1896 the Democrats chose William Jennings Bryan as their leader, a man who was born in 1860 and had thus missed the Civil War, but who seemed to threaten the consensus politics of the time. In response, Republican campaign masterminds organized a speaking tour of the Midwest by a handful of surviving Union generals. The veterans advanced through the battleground states in a special train adorned with patriotic bunting, pictures of their candidate, William McKinley, and a sign declaring, "We are Opposed to Anarchy and Repudiation."
The culture wars are the familiar demagogic tactic of our own time, building monstrous offenses out of the tiniest slights. The fading rancor that each grievance is meant to revive, of course, dates to the 1960s and the antiwar protests, urban riots and annoying youth culture that originally triggered our great turn to the right.
This year the Democrats chose Barack Obama as their leader, a man who was born in 1961 and who largely missed our cultural civil war. In response, Republican campaign masterminds have sought to plunge him back into it in the most desperate and grotesque manner yet.
For days on end, the Republican presidential campaign has put nearly all of its remaining political capital on emphasizing Mr. Obama's time on various foundation boards with Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weathermen, which planted bombs and issued preposterous statements in the Vietnam era. Some on the right seem to believe Mr. Ayers is Mr. Obama's puppet-master, while others are content merely to insist that the association proves Mr. Obama to be soft on terrorism. Maybe he's soft on anarchy and repudiation, too.
I can personally attest to the idiocy of it all because I am a friend of Mr. Ayers. In fact, I met him in the same way Mr. Obama says he did: 10 years ago, Mr. Ayers was a guy in my neighborhood in Chicago who knew something about fundraising. I knew nothing about it, I needed to learn, and a friend referred me to Bill.
Bill's got lots of friends, and that's because he is today a dedicated servant of those less fortunate than himself; because he is unfailingly generous to people who ask for his help; and because he is kind and affable and even humble. Moral qualities which, by the way, were celebrated boisterously on day one of the GOP convention in September.
Mr. Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where his work is esteemed by colleagues of different political viewpoints. Herbert Walberg, an advocate of school vouchers who is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, told me he remembers Mr. Ayers as "a responsible colleague, in the professional sense of the word." Bill Schubert, who served as the chairman of UIC's Department of Curriculum and Instruction for many years, thinks so highly of Mr. Ayers that, in response to the current allegations, he compiled a lengthy résumé of the man's books, journal articles, guest lectures and keynote speeches. Mr. Ayers has been involved with countless foundation efforts and has received various awards. He volunteers for everything. He may once have been wanted by the FBI, but in the intervening years the man has become such a good citizen he ought to be an honorary Eagle Scout.
I do not defend the things Mr. Ayers did in his Weatherman days. Nor will I quibble with those who find Mr. Ayers wanting in contrition. His 2001 memoir is shot through with regret, but it lacks the abject style our culture prefers.
Instead I want to note that, in its haste to convict a man merely for associating with Mr. Ayers, the GOP is effectively proposing to make the upcoming election into the largest mass trial in history, with all those professors and all those do-gooders on the hook for someone else's deeds four decades ago. Also in the dock: the demonic city (Chicago) that once named Mr. Ayers its "Citizen of the Year." Fire up Hurricane Katrina and point it toward Lake Michigan!
The McCain campaign has made much of its leader's honor and bravery, but now it has chosen to mount its greatest attack against a man who poses no conceivable threat to the country, who has nothing to do with this year's issues, and who cannot or will not defend himself. Apparently this makes him an irresistible target.
There are a lot of things to call this tactic, but "country first" isn't one of them. The nation wants its hope and confidence restored, and Republican leaders have chosen instead to wave the bloody shirt. This is their vilest hour.
Write to thomas@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122402888900234543.html
"Waving the bloody shirt" was the phrase once used to describe the standard demagogic tactic of the late 19th century, when memories of the Civil War were still vivid and loyalists of both parties could be moved to "vote as they shot." As the years passed and the memories faded, the shirt got gorier, the waving more frantic.
In 1896 the Democrats chose William Jennings Bryan as their leader, a man who was born in 1860 and had thus missed the Civil War, but who seemed to threaten the consensus politics of the time. In response, Republican campaign masterminds organized a speaking tour of the Midwest by a handful of surviving Union generals. The veterans advanced through the battleground states in a special train adorned with patriotic bunting, pictures of their candidate, William McKinley, and a sign declaring, "We are Opposed to Anarchy and Repudiation."
The culture wars are the familiar demagogic tactic of our own time, building monstrous offenses out of the tiniest slights. The fading rancor that each grievance is meant to revive, of course, dates to the 1960s and the antiwar protests, urban riots and annoying youth culture that originally triggered our great turn to the right.
This year the Democrats chose Barack Obama as their leader, a man who was born in 1961 and who largely missed our cultural civil war. In response, Republican campaign masterminds have sought to plunge him back into it in the most desperate and grotesque manner yet.
For days on end, the Republican presidential campaign has put nearly all of its remaining political capital on emphasizing Mr. Obama's time on various foundation boards with Bill Ayers, a former member of the Weathermen, which planted bombs and issued preposterous statements in the Vietnam era. Some on the right seem to believe Mr. Ayers is Mr. Obama's puppet-master, while others are content merely to insist that the association proves Mr. Obama to be soft on terrorism. Maybe he's soft on anarchy and repudiation, too.
I can personally attest to the idiocy of it all because I am a friend of Mr. Ayers. In fact, I met him in the same way Mr. Obama says he did: 10 years ago, Mr. Ayers was a guy in my neighborhood in Chicago who knew something about fundraising. I knew nothing about it, I needed to learn, and a friend referred me to Bill.
Bill's got lots of friends, and that's because he is today a dedicated servant of those less fortunate than himself; because he is unfailingly generous to people who ask for his help; and because he is kind and affable and even humble. Moral qualities which, by the way, were celebrated boisterously on day one of the GOP convention in September.
Mr. Ayers is a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where his work is esteemed by colleagues of different political viewpoints. Herbert Walberg, an advocate of school vouchers who is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, told me he remembers Mr. Ayers as "a responsible colleague, in the professional sense of the word." Bill Schubert, who served as the chairman of UIC's Department of Curriculum and Instruction for many years, thinks so highly of Mr. Ayers that, in response to the current allegations, he compiled a lengthy résumé of the man's books, journal articles, guest lectures and keynote speeches. Mr. Ayers has been involved with countless foundation efforts and has received various awards. He volunteers for everything. He may once have been wanted by the FBI, but in the intervening years the man has become such a good citizen he ought to be an honorary Eagle Scout.
I do not defend the things Mr. Ayers did in his Weatherman days. Nor will I quibble with those who find Mr. Ayers wanting in contrition. His 2001 memoir is shot through with regret, but it lacks the abject style our culture prefers.
Instead I want to note that, in its haste to convict a man merely for associating with Mr. Ayers, the GOP is effectively proposing to make the upcoming election into the largest mass trial in history, with all those professors and all those do-gooders on the hook for someone else's deeds four decades ago. Also in the dock: the demonic city (Chicago) that once named Mr. Ayers its "Citizen of the Year." Fire up Hurricane Katrina and point it toward Lake Michigan!
The McCain campaign has made much of its leader's honor and bravery, but now it has chosen to mount its greatest attack against a man who poses no conceivable threat to the country, who has nothing to do with this year's issues, and who cannot or will not defend himself. Apparently this makes him an irresistible target.
There are a lot of things to call this tactic, but "country first" isn't one of them. The nation wants its hope and confidence restored, and Republican leaders have chosen instead to wave the bloody shirt. This is their vilest hour.
Write to thomas@wsj.com
Monday, October 13, 2008
They are open weekdays, closed on weekends...
Roger & Me is one of my favorite documentaries of all time - that and Gates of Heaven...
I love the guy in Roger & Me who is describing to Michael Moore how often the plasma donation center is open:
"They're only open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Saturday and Sunday, they're closed. "
Gates of Heaven is a documentary about a pet cemetery. One of my favorite parts is this woman talking and she just meanders through - you couldn't write this... it's brilliant...
"I'm raised on a farm, we had chickens and pigs and cows and sheep and everything. But down here I've been lost. Now they've taken them all away from here up to that - What's the name of that place? Up above here a little ways? That town? Commences with a 'B.' Blue. It's - Blue Hill Cemetery, I think the name of it is. Not too far, I guess, about maybe twenty miles from here. A little town there, a little place. You know where it's at. But I was really surprised when I heard they were getting rid of the cemetery over here. Gonna put in buildings or something over there. Ah well, I know people been very good to me, you know. Well, they see my condition, I guess, must of felt sorry for me. But it's real, my condition is. It's not put on. That's for sure! Boy, if I could only walk. If I could only get out. Drive my car. I'd get another car. Ya... and my son, if he was only better to me. After I bought him that car. He's got a nice car. I bought it myself just a short time ago. I don't know. These kids - the more you do for them... He' s my grandson, but I raised him from two years old... I don't see him very often. And he just got the car. I didn't pay for all of it. I gave him four hundred dollars. Pretty good! His boss knows it. Well, he's not working for that outfit now. He's changed. He's gone back on his old job - hauling sand. No, not hauling sand; he's working in the office. That's right. He took over the office job. His boss told me that on the phone. But, you know, he should help me more. He's all I got. He's the one who brought me up here. And then put me here by myself among strangers. It's terrible, you stop and think of it. I've been without so much, when I first come up here. Ya. It's what half of my trouble is from - him not being home with me. Didn't cost him nothing to stay here. Every time he need money, he'd always come, 'Mom, can I have this? Can I have that?' But he never pays back. Too good, too easy - that's what everybody tells me. I quit now. I quit. Now he's got the office job, I'm going after him. I'm going after him good, too - if I have to go in... in a different way. He's going to pay that money. He's got the office job now. And he makes good money anyway. And he has no kids. He has not married. Never get married, he says. He was married once - they're divorced. Well, she tried to take him for the kid, but she didn't. They went to court. It was somebody else's kid. She was nothing but a tramp in the first place. I told him that. He wouldn't listen to me. I says, 'I know what she is.' I said, 'Richard, please, listen to me.' He wouldn't listen. He knew all, he knew everything. Big shot! But he soon found out. Now that's all over with. I've been through so much I don't know how I'm staying alive. Really, for my age... if you're young, it's different. But I've always said I'm never going to grow old. I've always had that, and the people that I tell how old I am, they don't believe me, because people my age as a rule don't get around like I do."
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gates_of_Heaven
For some reason, the hours of this store, Caramel, that Ken blogged about reminded me of the Roger & Me quote (which led me to the Gates of Heaven memory - the two have nothing to do with one another):
store hours
Monday 4-8 PM
Thursday 12-9 PM
Friday 12-9 PM
Saturday 11 AM -7 PM
Sunday 12-6 PM
Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment.
Does it really have to be that complicated? I think if I owned the store I wouldn't be able to remember what time to show up and open the doors each day.
I love the guy in Roger & Me who is describing to Michael Moore how often the plasma donation center is open:
"They're only open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Saturday and Sunday, they're closed. "
Gates of Heaven is a documentary about a pet cemetery. One of my favorite parts is this woman talking and she just meanders through - you couldn't write this... it's brilliant...
"I'm raised on a farm, we had chickens and pigs and cows and sheep and everything. But down here I've been lost. Now they've taken them all away from here up to that - What's the name of that place? Up above here a little ways? That town? Commences with a 'B.' Blue. It's - Blue Hill Cemetery, I think the name of it is. Not too far, I guess, about maybe twenty miles from here. A little town there, a little place. You know where it's at. But I was really surprised when I heard they were getting rid of the cemetery over here. Gonna put in buildings or something over there. Ah well, I know people been very good to me, you know. Well, they see my condition, I guess, must of felt sorry for me. But it's real, my condition is. It's not put on. That's for sure! Boy, if I could only walk. If I could only get out. Drive my car. I'd get another car. Ya... and my son, if he was only better to me. After I bought him that car. He's got a nice car. I bought it myself just a short time ago. I don't know. These kids - the more you do for them... He' s my grandson, but I raised him from two years old... I don't see him very often. And he just got the car. I didn't pay for all of it. I gave him four hundred dollars. Pretty good! His boss knows it. Well, he's not working for that outfit now. He's changed. He's gone back on his old job - hauling sand. No, not hauling sand; he's working in the office. That's right. He took over the office job. His boss told me that on the phone. But, you know, he should help me more. He's all I got. He's the one who brought me up here. And then put me here by myself among strangers. It's terrible, you stop and think of it. I've been without so much, when I first come up here. Ya. It's what half of my trouble is from - him not being home with me. Didn't cost him nothing to stay here. Every time he need money, he'd always come, 'Mom, can I have this? Can I have that?' But he never pays back. Too good, too easy - that's what everybody tells me. I quit now. I quit. Now he's got the office job, I'm going after him. I'm going after him good, too - if I have to go in... in a different way. He's going to pay that money. He's got the office job now. And he makes good money anyway. And he has no kids. He has not married. Never get married, he says. He was married once - they're divorced. Well, she tried to take him for the kid, but she didn't. They went to court. It was somebody else's kid. She was nothing but a tramp in the first place. I told him that. He wouldn't listen to me. I says, 'I know what she is.' I said, 'Richard, please, listen to me.' He wouldn't listen. He knew all, he knew everything. Big shot! But he soon found out. Now that's all over with. I've been through so much I don't know how I'm staying alive. Really, for my age... if you're young, it's different. But I've always said I'm never going to grow old. I've always had that, and the people that I tell how old I am, they don't believe me, because people my age as a rule don't get around like I do."
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gates_of_Heaven
For some reason, the hours of this store, Caramel, that Ken blogged about reminded me of the Roger & Me quote (which led me to the Gates of Heaven memory - the two have nothing to do with one another):
store hours
Monday 4-8 PM
Thursday 12-9 PM
Friday 12-9 PM
Saturday 11 AM -7 PM
Sunday 12-6 PM
Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment.
Does it really have to be that complicated? I think if I owned the store I wouldn't be able to remember what time to show up and open the doors each day.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Got a Cat and Skinned Her: Janie & Lisa
Mike and I used to change the lyrics to Earth, Wind & Fire's song September and the phrases we used most were:
Got a cat and skinned her
My best friend's Lucinda-er
Had a Waring Blender
Friends Lisa and Janie gave us a Waring Blender for a wedding present at the kitchen shower they hosted for us in NYC. And I often think of sending them thank you notes randomly, because I use the blender every day. I use it every day and I think of them each and every time I use it. For one thing, it is SUCH a good blender - it crushes ice for margaritas or smoothies - it can handle any job. It was such a nice gift - and I remember thinking at the time that I couldn't believe they would spend so much money! I was so grateful. And it's as sleek and fashionable today as it was in 1997 (those girls have good taste). The shower and party (Doug and I were both there) were so elegant - up to that time, I don't think anyone had ever done anything like that for me. At a time when we really didn't have much, Lisa and Janie did a lot for us.
Lisa went on to host a baby shower for us. Both of these girls were not just at my wedding but in it. Janie's husband David chose and read a beautiful poem (that I have hanging on a wall above my desk)... They have done a lot for me. Much too much.
People would say, that's what friends do. But I don't know if I would - I mean I try to be as good a friend as my friends are to me, but I don't think I ever really make it. I am always astonished and overwhelmed by how dear my friends are - how good they are to me. I don't deserve it.
Commercial Paper and Credit Default Swaps
This American Life (http://www.thislife.org/) has done it again with show 365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy
Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode—are back, in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast. They'll explain what happened this week, including what regulators could've done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place. You can learn more about the daily ins and outs and join the discussion on the Planet Money blog.
Prologue.
Host Ira Glass goes to Union Square, a 15-minute subway ride from Wall Street, where it doesn't look like we're on the edge of an economic abyss. (3 minutes)
Act One. The Day the Market Died.
Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson recount the 36-hour period, two weeks ago, when the credit markets froze. Plus, what it’s like now for businesses to get short-term loans, and how the hardship is spreading to every sector of the economy. (16 minutes)
Act Two. Out of the Hedges and Into the Woods.
One more confusing financial product that’s bringing down the global economy. And one of way to think about this product is this: If bad mortgages got the financial system sick, this next thing you’re about to hear about, helped spread the sickness into an epidemic. These are "credit default swaps." Alex explains. (19 minutes)
Act Three. Swap Cops.
Ira talks with Michael Greenberger, a former commodities regulator, who tells the story of when it was decided not to regulate credit default swaps. And how that decision was emblematic of the way we didn’t regulate a lot of the toxic financial products we’re hearing about now. (8 minutes)Song: "Bankrupt on Selling," Modest Mouse
Act Four. What's Next?
Ira and Adam answer the question: Was the $700 billion bailout bill signed into law today a good idea or a bad one? (10 minutes)
Alex Blumberg and NPR's Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported our Giant Pool of Money episode—are back, in collaboration with the Planet Money podcast. They'll explain what happened this week, including what regulators could've done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place. You can learn more about the daily ins and outs and join the discussion on the Planet Money blog.
Prologue.
Host Ira Glass goes to Union Square, a 15-minute subway ride from Wall Street, where it doesn't look like we're on the edge of an economic abyss. (3 minutes)
Act One. The Day the Market Died.
Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson recount the 36-hour period, two weeks ago, when the credit markets froze. Plus, what it’s like now for businesses to get short-term loans, and how the hardship is spreading to every sector of the economy. (16 minutes)
Act Two. Out of the Hedges and Into the Woods.
One more confusing financial product that’s bringing down the global economy. And one of way to think about this product is this: If bad mortgages got the financial system sick, this next thing you’re about to hear about, helped spread the sickness into an epidemic. These are "credit default swaps." Alex explains. (19 minutes)
Act Three. Swap Cops.
Ira talks with Michael Greenberger, a former commodities regulator, who tells the story of when it was decided not to regulate credit default swaps. And how that decision was emblematic of the way we didn’t regulate a lot of the toxic financial products we’re hearing about now. (8 minutes)Song: "Bankrupt on Selling," Modest Mouse
Act Four. What's Next?
Ira and Adam answer the question: Was the $700 billion bailout bill signed into law today a good idea or a bad one? (10 minutes)
Monday, October 06, 2008
Flys With Honey
What's interesting about this Keating-5 document to me is not McCain's involvement in the scandal, but the misspellings and typos. Check out:
...it flys in the face of...
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Fool?
I am.
Sarah Palin has taken her heels off, apparently, to insinuate a relationship between Barack Obama and a man who was once a leader in the Weather Underground movement. She calls this man, William Ayers a terrorist, but the facts don't hold up.
From CNN:
In the 1960s, Ayers was a founding member of the radical Weather Underground group. Federal charges against them were dropped due to FBI misconduct in gathering evidence. Ayers, 63, is now an education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt told CNN that after meeting Obama through the Annenberg project, Ayers hosted a campaign event for him that same year. LaBolt also said the two have not spoken by phone or exchanged e-mail messages since Obama came to the U.S. Senate in 2005.
There is no indication that Ayers and Obama are now "palling around," or that they have had an ongoing relationship in the past three years. Also, there is nothing to suggest that Ayers is now involved in terrorist activity or that other Obama associates are.
It's laughable to believe that the University of Illinois has a terrorist holding a tenured teaching position. And it's despicable, the lengths to which the McCain campaign will go; when, without much dredging or insinuating anyone could easily make the argument that as a member of the Keating 5, John McCain is the last person we'd want in the White House, given our current economic crisis.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Facebook Confusion: Friend vs. Acquaintance
Here's what's happening to me on facebook. Lovely people who I recognize but will never see again and never really had any relationship with other than attending the same high school, add me as a friend on facebook. It's a quandary. I am very particular with words - and some of these people were never my friends and they certainly aren't my friends now. They meet the classic definition of acquaintances.
ac·quaint·ance
–noun 1. a person known to one, but usually not a close friend.
2. the state of being acquainted.
3. personal knowledge as a result of study, experience, etc.: a good acquaintance with French wines.
4. (used with a plural verb) the persons with whom one is acquainted.
I wish I had the option to add these people as acquaintances instead of ignoring them or saying, in a sort of forced way, "hi friend!!" It's awkward. I don't add people as friends if we weren't ever really friends.
I have come to a decision though that I am going to have to hit 'ignore'. It's the only option. It feels like some sort of Seinfeld episode like when Jerry put his foot down about kissing virtual strangers - kissing hello, kissing goodbye. That's me. I'm just not comfortable. I can't do it I tell ya.
ac·quaint·ance
–noun 1. a person known to one, but usually not a close friend.
2. the state of being acquainted.
3. personal knowledge as a result of study, experience, etc.: a good acquaintance with French wines.
4. (used with a plural verb) the persons with whom one is acquainted.
I wish I had the option to add these people as acquaintances instead of ignoring them or saying, in a sort of forced way, "hi friend!!" It's awkward. I don't add people as friends if we weren't ever really friends.
I have come to a decision though that I am going to have to hit 'ignore'. It's the only option. It feels like some sort of Seinfeld episode like when Jerry put his foot down about kissing virtual strangers - kissing hello, kissing goodbye. That's me. I'm just not comfortable. I can't do it I tell ya.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
I'm reminded of Hopkins today.
One of my favorite poems, and one of the few I've committed to memory:
Spring and Fall
to a young child
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wÃll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wÃll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Helene's Spleen: Sarah "six-pack" Palin - just a regular gal for 'mongst the hoity-toity Washington elite
Helene's Spleen: Sarah "six-pack" Palin - just a regular gal for 'mongst the hoity-toity Washington elite
This is very funny. How did we get from John Doe (so respectable) to Joe Six-Pack?
This is very funny. How did we get from John Doe (so respectable) to Joe Six-Pack?
I stand by all the misstatements that I've made
On the eve of the Vice Presidential debate, I am fondly reminded of that other bumbling fool in-over-his-head VP, Dan Quayle. Here are some of my personal favorites:
"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." Source: (USA Today 5/10/89)
"There were no Palestinians riding on planes on September 9th."
Source Time Magazine (Quayle was referencing the 9/11 attacks)
"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."
Senator Dan Quayle, 9/15/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92, The New Yorker, 10/10/88, p.102)
"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."
Senator Dan Quayle, 10/30/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92 and the LA Times, 10/30/88)
"Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here."
Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, 4/25/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
The other day [the President] said, I know you've had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in your maturity and sense of responsibility. (He paused, then said) Would you like a puppy?
Source: LA Times 5/21/89
"We are on an irreversible trend towards more freedom and democracy - but that could change."
Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, 5/22/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"Mars is essentially in the same orbit...Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, 8/11/89 (interview broadcast on CNN, referenced in 9/1/89 Washington Post article: "A Quayle Vision of Mars")
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
December 6, 1993
"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
Vice President Dan Quayle, talking to NASA employees, 9/5/90 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"I have been asked who caused the riots and the killing in LA, my answer has been direct & simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame."
Vice President Dan Quayle (during the Commonwealth Club speech 5/19/92)
"Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it."
Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/20/92 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
Attributed:
"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."
"Potato. P-O-T-A-T-O-E."
"My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will never surrender to what is right."
In a speech to the Christian Coalition
"You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be."
In a speech to American Samoans
"I stand by all my misstatements."
"The future will be better tomorrow."
"A word of advice: 'get a job.'"
"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." Source: (USA Today 5/10/89)
"There were no Palestinians riding on planes on September 9th."
Source Time Magazine (Quayle was referencing the 9/11 attacks)
"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."
Senator Dan Quayle, 9/15/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92, The New Yorker, 10/10/88, p.102)
"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."
Senator Dan Quayle, 10/30/88 (reported in Esquire, 8/92 and the LA Times, 10/30/88)
"Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here."
Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, 4/25/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
The other day [the President] said, I know you've had some rough times, and I want to do something that will show the nation what faith that I have in you, in your maturity and sense of responsibility. (He paused, then said) Would you like a puppy?
Source: LA Times 5/21/89
"We are on an irreversible trend towards more freedom and democracy - but that could change."
Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, 5/22/89 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"Mars is essentially in the same orbit...Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."
Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, 8/11/89 (interview broadcast on CNN, referenced in 9/1/89 Washington Post article: "A Quayle Vision of Mars")
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
December 6, 1993
"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
Vice President Dan Quayle, talking to NASA employees, 9/5/90 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
"I have been asked who caused the riots and the killing in LA, my answer has been direct & simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame."
Vice President Dan Quayle (during the Commonwealth Club speech 5/19/92)
"Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it."
Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/20/92 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)
Attributed:
"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."
"Potato. P-O-T-A-T-O-E."
"My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will never surrender to what is right."
In a speech to the Christian Coalition
"You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be."
In a speech to American Samoans
"I stand by all my misstatements."
"The future will be better tomorrow."
"A word of advice: 'get a job.'"
"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
Baby U
I heard a fascinating story yesterday on This American Life (podcast) about Geoffrey Canada, the founder of The Harlem Children's Zone. Canada started to Think Big, which is what the edition of TAL was all about. He wanted to solve big problems in a big way - getting kids out of poverty, keeping black boys from fast-tracking into the prison system and getting Harlem kids prepared for adulthood. It's truly extraordinary what Canada realized and how easy it could be to make a significant change. According to him, the most important difference between poor parents and well-to-do parents was the sheer number of words an affluent child hears. The amount of language and the quality of that language (encouraging and positive) is a deciding factor.
So, he began programs that are succeeding and showing amazing results teaching parents in Harlem things that suburban parents just know: namely that coporal punishment doesn't work, reading to your children is very important, building them up is crucial. It's interesting that in wealthy neighborhoods there is a strong sort of peer pressure to be a good parent. And there are very strong taboos about doing certain things that these poor parents were still free to do - 'popping' their kids, insulting them and running them down, yelling all the time, not going to pre-school - things that in my neighborhood we feel an intense pressure from our community to avoid. There would be a lot of gossip about me and kids wouldn't come for play dates if I were the kind of parent I heard about in this episode of This American Life. Very interesting.
www.thislife.org
So, he began programs that are succeeding and showing amazing results teaching parents in Harlem things that suburban parents just know: namely that coporal punishment doesn't work, reading to your children is very important, building them up is crucial. It's interesting that in wealthy neighborhoods there is a strong sort of peer pressure to be a good parent. And there are very strong taboos about doing certain things that these poor parents were still free to do - 'popping' their kids, insulting them and running them down, yelling all the time, not going to pre-school - things that in my neighborhood we feel an intense pressure from our community to avoid. There would be a lot of gossip about me and kids wouldn't come for play dates if I were the kind of parent I heard about in this episode of This American Life. Very interesting.
www.thislife.org
The Better to See You With
"A wolf is at the door" - George Bush
The Wildlife Action Fund is running an anti-Palin ad. A news article states:
"Last year, Palin's office announced the state would offer cash to kill wolves. Incentives included offering volunteer pilots and aerial gunner teams $150 for turning in the forelegs of freshly killed wolves."
This made me think of the movie Never Cry Wolf - an excellent film with Charles Martin Smith about Alasakan wolves. We used to love this film when I was in college. I remember watching it with Mike and Bennett. It sort of makes me sick that people were offered money to kill and dismember wolves. That movie made me love those animals.
The Wildlife Action Fund is running an anti-Palin ad. A news article states:
"Last year, Palin's office announced the state would offer cash to kill wolves. Incentives included offering volunteer pilots and aerial gunner teams $150 for turning in the forelegs of freshly killed wolves."
This made me think of the movie Never Cry Wolf - an excellent film with Charles Martin Smith about Alasakan wolves. We used to love this film when I was in college. I remember watching it with Mike and Bennett. It sort of makes me sick that people were offered money to kill and dismember wolves. That movie made me love those animals.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Owl Babies
I love Bird Note on NPR and I always hear it just after I drop off the boys at school. Today was about the great horned owl - a couple and their babies.
transcript:
Compared to many birds, Great Horned Owls remain with their parents a long time. Robins, for example, are fending for themselves only six weeks after they hatch. The two owlets are now almost seven months old. They were born in early March, from eggs laid in late January. The mother incubated the eggs for a month, never leaving the nest. During that month, the male Great Horned Owl was the sole provider.
By April, both parents were hunting through the night. They airlifted in meal after meal to the rapidly growing young, everything from delectable ducks to smelly skunks. But for the last two weeks, the adults have not fed the young. The owlets have learned the skills they need to hunt on their own.
Today could be the final day the family group roosts together. For any night now, the young owls will strike out on their own.
We’d like to know what you think of BirdNote. Please send your comments to info@BirdNote.org.
We had a book for Emery and then Wilbur called OWL BABIES about just this. And both boys loved that book and would have me read it 4 or 5 times each night. The story goes that the babies wake up and their mommy is not there. They think a lot and just when they are about to panic, she swoops into the nest and they flap and they dance and are overjoyed to see her. She asks what's all the fuss? You knew I'd come back!
Bird Note today reminded me of my little owlets and their favorite owlet book.
transcript:
Compared to many birds, Great Horned Owls remain with their parents a long time. Robins, for example, are fending for themselves only six weeks after they hatch. The two owlets are now almost seven months old. They were born in early March, from eggs laid in late January. The mother incubated the eggs for a month, never leaving the nest. During that month, the male Great Horned Owl was the sole provider.
By April, both parents were hunting through the night. They airlifted in meal after meal to the rapidly growing young, everything from delectable ducks to smelly skunks. But for the last two weeks, the adults have not fed the young. The owlets have learned the skills they need to hunt on their own.
Today could be the final day the family group roosts together. For any night now, the young owls will strike out on their own.
We’d like to know what you think of BirdNote. Please send your comments to info@BirdNote.org.
We had a book for Emery and then Wilbur called OWL BABIES about just this. And both boys loved that book and would have me read it 4 or 5 times each night. The story goes that the babies wake up and their mommy is not there. They think a lot and just when they are about to panic, she swoops into the nest and they flap and they dance and are overjoyed to see her. She asks what's all the fuss? You knew I'd come back!
Bird Note today reminded me of my little owlets and their favorite owlet book.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Newman
Doug's favorite movie is The Verdict - I mean his favorite movie not just favorite Newman film. Paul Newman is Doug's favorite actor and The Verdict is his favorite film. I bet we've seen it together 100 times and he has probably seen it 50 more on his own.
The reason Doug loves this film is the Sisyphean nature of Frank Galvan's struggle with the system, his past and himself. It's an Everyman kind of struggle, having really bad luck and then becoming your own stumbling block and your own worst enemy; raging against a machine that has money and power on its side. Yet Newman's character is victorious and he manages it with a little imagination and most importantly, he just wants it badly enough. He pleads with the universe that there is no losing here. And the universe responds.
This appeals to Doug and it's easy to see why. I always liked this film before I knew Doug, but I had missed the deeper meanings and the nuances. And there is something particular to manliness about needing to get back on top and to win.
So, thank you Mr. Paul Newman, for all the work you did and all the movies we love. But particularly, thank you for The Verdict.
The reason Doug loves this film is the Sisyphean nature of Frank Galvan's struggle with the system, his past and himself. It's an Everyman kind of struggle, having really bad luck and then becoming your own stumbling block and your own worst enemy; raging against a machine that has money and power on its side. Yet Newman's character is victorious and he manages it with a little imagination and most importantly, he just wants it badly enough. He pleads with the universe that there is no losing here. And the universe responds.
This appeals to Doug and it's easy to see why. I always liked this film before I knew Doug, but I had missed the deeper meanings and the nuances. And there is something particular to manliness about needing to get back on top and to win.
So, thank you Mr. Paul Newman, for all the work you did and all the movies we love. But particularly, thank you for The Verdict.
Friday, September 26, 2008
I'm not the only one who thinks it...
Palin should step down, conservative commentator says
Posted: 03:27 PM ET
From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Prominent conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, an early supporter of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, said Friday recent interviews have shown the Alaska governor is "out of her league" and should leave the GOP presidential ticket for the good of the party.
The criticism in Parker's Friday column is the latest in a recent string of negative assessments toward the McCain-Palin candidacy from prominent conservatives.
It was fun while it lasted," Parker writes. "Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who is clearly out of her league."
“If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself," Parker also writes. "If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true."
Posted: 03:27 PM ET
From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
Prominent conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, an early supporter of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin, said Friday recent interviews have shown the Alaska governor is "out of her league" and should leave the GOP presidential ticket for the good of the party.
The criticism in Parker's Friday column is the latest in a recent string of negative assessments toward the McCain-Palin candidacy from prominent conservatives.
It was fun while it lasted," Parker writes. "Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who is clearly out of her league."
“If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself," Parker also writes. "If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true."
A murder of crows
What if we did nothing? What if we let the free market economists have their day of reckoning? It's a lot of cacophonic shouting and pleading right now, but things haven't exactly turned out the way the hollerers predicted. Barclays steps in and buys Lehman's. Warren Buffet invests 5 billion bargain dollars in Goldman Sachs. JPMorgan Chase now owns WaMu. Isn't this what is supposed to happen? There are losers and those losers get snapped up by those who can afford to play...
I don't know if we should do nothing. I am not an economist. But I do know that it's easy to spout off your principles and core beliefs when everything is telling you you're right or to promulgate those beliefs in the realm of the hypothetical. It's certainly harder to live them out when it's not monopoly money and red plastic houses. And if capitalism is one of our core beliefs, now is the time to live it.
I don't know if we should do nothing. I am not an economist. But I do know that it's easy to spout off your principles and core beliefs when everything is telling you you're right or to promulgate those beliefs in the realm of the hypothetical. It's certainly harder to live them out when it's not monopoly money and red plastic houses. And if capitalism is one of our core beliefs, now is the time to live it.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Witchcraft Big Problem
Witchraft, once a small but growing problem in American life, is becoming a widespread epidemic in rural America. Leaders from the Republican party say protection from Witchcraft is an imperative for GOP candidates now, as Witches perniciously seek to control public servants' minds and hearts. No longer a fear for the crackpot few, "Witchcraft must take center stage as one of the most dire threats to GOP candidates!", said a leader in the Republican Party.
"What we are seeing is stunning. Brooms, pointed hats, women with moles on their faces - someone in Wasilla recently saw a witch walking her cat! This is a big deal and the rest of the country better wake up and get prayed for!" Bob Denster, an Alaska native, said that Witchcraft has been a growing problem in the state with the long, dark winters where Wicca thrive. "They need darkness, lots a darkness, so naturally they like it here in the Winter."
The Republican party is warning that this Halloween could be a bigger crisis than the current financial debacle, given that Sarah Palin is the only candidate who has been specifically prayed over and protected from Witchcraft. A leading Republican strategist claimed, "We could see all the other candidates spelled. Who knows what could happen."
"What we are seeing is stunning. Brooms, pointed hats, women with moles on their faces - someone in Wasilla recently saw a witch walking her cat! This is a big deal and the rest of the country better wake up and get prayed for!" Bob Denster, an Alaska native, said that Witchcraft has been a growing problem in the state with the long, dark winters where Wicca thrive. "They need darkness, lots a darkness, so naturally they like it here in the Winter."
The Republican party is warning that this Halloween could be a bigger crisis than the current financial debacle, given that Sarah Palin is the only candidate who has been specifically prayed over and protected from Witchcraft. A leading Republican strategist claimed, "We could see all the other candidates spelled. Who knows what could happen."
Snap! I can't debate on Friday!
I would advise John McCain to keep his Blackberry handy so he can be in constant communication via... SNAP! He does have to go back to Washington!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The Anne Frank Doctrine
My father and I once had an argument about his political conservatism and my political liberalism that engendered this contrast between us: he said that people, left to their own devices with their money will make better decisions than the government would; I said the opposite. It boiled down to the essence which was that my father adhered to the Anne Frank Doctrine saying People Are Basically Good and I did not. I believe that people are basically petty.
If I had been Anne Frank I would never have written her gracious words. I think people, left to their own devices with money or anything else - with no one watching, exhibit greed, stupidity, pettiness and xenophobia. And as much as I love my daddy, I think history and the current financial crisis show I am right.
It's an odd position that we came to in that argument but I see where my father was coming from. He felt that problems should be addressed at the local level without interference from the Federal Government. He believed that people would do the right things to address issues in their community. And he felt they should have more of their own money (pay less tax, so they could give more to charity and church if they chose) and should be free to make money in a free market.
I couldn't disagree more. I think people will keep all their money and give little away if they have no incentive to do so (like a tax break). I think if they can find a way to make money on the back of someone else, they will. I think if they can convince themselves that a profitable loophole is only unethical and not illegal, or illegal but they are sure not to get caught, they'll do it.
It doesn't make me pleased to find people are not good at heart. But they keep proving me again and again.
If I had been Anne Frank I would never have written her gracious words. I think people, left to their own devices with money or anything else - with no one watching, exhibit greed, stupidity, pettiness and xenophobia. And as much as I love my daddy, I think history and the current financial crisis show I am right.
It's an odd position that we came to in that argument but I see where my father was coming from. He felt that problems should be addressed at the local level without interference from the Federal Government. He believed that people would do the right things to address issues in their community. And he felt they should have more of their own money (pay less tax, so they could give more to charity and church if they chose) and should be free to make money in a free market.
I couldn't disagree more. I think people will keep all their money and give little away if they have no incentive to do so (like a tax break). I think if they can find a way to make money on the back of someone else, they will. I think if they can convince themselves that a profitable loophole is only unethical and not illegal, or illegal but they are sure not to get caught, they'll do it.
It doesn't make me pleased to find people are not good at heart. But they keep proving me again and again.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Dear Daddy,
It's impossible to describe how I feel each year on this day. A friend of mine, Jon, once described grieving his mother and said that he hated how the passage of time made things easier - that made it harder. He didn't want to start missing her less. That was a new kind of pain. I know exactly what he meant. Time has dulled the pain down to a dull edge and that makes me so sad.
Daddy, we think of you so often. We were just in Palm Springs and thought how much fun we would all have there. How many times do we do something or go somewhere that we say, "Wayne would love this" or "Daddy would have made that so much fun"? Doug loves you so much and always wanted to spend more time with you. When the boys say something that we know you would find particularly funny we catch the melancholy and laugh but feel like crying. I miss how you feel and how you smell. I miss hugging you. I miss your arm on my shoulder. I miss your pride in me. I miss commenting on how alike we are. I miss hearing you sing and quote poetry. I miss the stories you told. I miss your humor and your nicknames for everyone you loved: The Captain, the Molitor, Agent Orange, the Silver Fox, Simmar Lamon (the funny story of Lamar Simmons at the Laredo golf tournament), Midget, Squirrel... I miss having you in the world. You are hard to describe to people who didn't know you and that frustrates me. I see them smiling fondly as I try to describe you, but you are so much more vivid. You were so much more interesting in person. A renaissance man, a man of faith, a man who knew sonnets and poems, who loved opera, a man who was funny and Texan and small-town and big city, a man knew how to eat well and drink well, who was always ready to celebrate, a man who always went first class.
The world doesn't seem right without you.
I talk to you often and I wonder what the divine is like. You will make a place for us someday and I will see you then. Until that time, I will miss you more and less every day.
Love,
Paige
Daddy, we think of you so often. We were just in Palm Springs and thought how much fun we would all have there. How many times do we do something or go somewhere that we say, "Wayne would love this" or "Daddy would have made that so much fun"? Doug loves you so much and always wanted to spend more time with you. When the boys say something that we know you would find particularly funny we catch the melancholy and laugh but feel like crying. I miss how you feel and how you smell. I miss hugging you. I miss your arm on my shoulder. I miss your pride in me. I miss commenting on how alike we are. I miss hearing you sing and quote poetry. I miss the stories you told. I miss your humor and your nicknames for everyone you loved: The Captain, the Molitor, Agent Orange, the Silver Fox, Simmar Lamon (the funny story of Lamar Simmons at the Laredo golf tournament), Midget, Squirrel... I miss having you in the world. You are hard to describe to people who didn't know you and that frustrates me. I see them smiling fondly as I try to describe you, but you are so much more vivid. You were so much more interesting in person. A renaissance man, a man of faith, a man who knew sonnets and poems, who loved opera, a man who was funny and Texan and small-town and big city, a man knew how to eat well and drink well, who was always ready to celebrate, a man who always went first class.
The world doesn't seem right without you.
I talk to you often and I wonder what the divine is like. You will make a place for us someday and I will see you then. Until that time, I will miss you more and less every day.
Love,
Paige
Monday, September 15, 2008
Be the Ball
People who are tired of the mess we are in and who intend to see a better day in this country must stop saying that Barack Obama is going to lose. We must instead practice the audacity of hope that he wrote about and engage ancient wisdom that says if you want something CLAIM it.
Let's just claim it. We are claiming the change. No wavering. No concessions. Not even a hint of doubt. Be the Ball.
Friday, September 12, 2008
She talks like a duck and Emery's first library card
There is another news story this morning online about Sarah Palin's repeated inquiries to a librarian about what the librarian would do if she were asked to remove a book title from the shelves.
The librarian told Mayor Palin that she did not abide censorship and reminded the Mayor of the Constitution's stance on such behavior.
People in the middle or on the right really want to downplay this and think Liberals and Democrats are exploiting some innocent inquiries, trying to turn Palin's conservatism into fascism. But I say, we all know exactly what Sarah Palin was asking that librarian. And we all know why that librarian was fired by Palin and then reinstated.
We have to fear when one group of people wants to control what the rest of us read.
This was all brought to the forefront of my mind as Emery got his first library card this week.
The documents that accompanied the card in the mail stated that the library's mission was to provide free, open and equal access to ideas and information for all members of the community. It gave me a boost of civic pride to read that.
Emery has a constitutional right protecting his access to information and ideas. We have to continue to guard against the kind of hubris and arrogance that whispers in the ears of the Palins that they speak for me and for my children. That is an insidious and pernicious voice that says to a Sarah Palin, 'I know best - I know which ideas are dangerous and I will determine what is fit for public consumption.'
We all know why Palin asked about books being banned. Maybe some people are fooled by this woman and her insouciant hair, but I am not.
The librarian told Mayor Palin that she did not abide censorship and reminded the Mayor of the Constitution's stance on such behavior.
People in the middle or on the right really want to downplay this and think Liberals and Democrats are exploiting some innocent inquiries, trying to turn Palin's conservatism into fascism. But I say, we all know exactly what Sarah Palin was asking that librarian. And we all know why that librarian was fired by Palin and then reinstated.
We have to fear when one group of people wants to control what the rest of us read.
This was all brought to the forefront of my mind as Emery got his first library card this week.
The documents that accompanied the card in the mail stated that the library's mission was to provide free, open and equal access to ideas and information for all members of the community. It gave me a boost of civic pride to read that.
Emery has a constitutional right protecting his access to information and ideas. We have to continue to guard against the kind of hubris and arrogance that whispers in the ears of the Palins that they speak for me and for my children. That is an insidious and pernicious voice that says to a Sarah Palin, 'I know best - I know which ideas are dangerous and I will determine what is fit for public consumption.'
We all know why Palin asked about books being banned. Maybe some people are fooled by this woman and her insouciant hair, but I am not.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Okapi
This word was once the answer to a clue on a NY Times crossword. I was stuck on the clue and Emery said, "give me one and see if I get it." So I read the clue 'Giraffe like African animal' or soemthing like that and Emery goes:
"hmmm...
I'd say Okapi"
San Antonio is #2!
I read an article yesterday that said SA plans to convert human waste to energy, selling methane gas from the San Antonio Water System sewage plant to an energy company in Massachusetts.
Of course the obvious puns leap to mind simply because of how many refried beans are consumed in SA... But I'm proud of my hometown. South Texas is so different than North Texas. More Catholic = more fun. You'll never find a dry county in S. Texas. You won't find that rich people outnumber poor people in S. Texas. You won't find anyone wearing a tight red leather mini-skirted suit and peplum with red leather stilettos on a Sunday morning at au bon pan in S. Texas (that's a true story which can be confirmed by Sad Trashy Jon).
What you'll find is diversity and poverty, good food and big, devoted families that will spend their last hundred bucks on a huge party that the whole neighborhood attends to celebrate a child's first birthday (that's a story too and there were balloons, smurfs, mariachis AND a live band somewhere off Zazamorra Road. I was hired as the smurf).
The Baptists in San Antonio act more like Catholics. The Baptists in N. Texas act more like Church of Christ (not to be confused with our denomination The United Church of Christ) or Assembly of God. I mean Catholic in the sense that they drink, party, forgive, atone, confess, start all over again. They aren't stereotypically sanctimonious like N. Texas, where you have to drive an extra 5 miles because you find yourself in a gas station or grocery store where there is no beer. In South Texas you certainly won't find yourself at a Baptist wedding where no alcohol is served and people keep disappearing out to their cars to imbibe the beverage they had to drive 10 miles out of town to buy (That's a true story about a Wichita Falls wedding and not a drop to drink, can you imagine? How is it acceptable to ask people to attend your daughter's wedding ceremony, which goes on forever and everyone knows will end in divorce - it did- and where all the guests had to go to the tiny Wichita Falls airstrip to watch the happy couple fly away in her daddy's Cessna AND NOT GIVE US A COCKTAIL???!!! It was an outrage).
So, Bottoms Up San Antonio! Good for you! There is some spiritual metaphor in this. Menudo and Margaritas for all!
Sunday, September 07, 2008
She is Trash that Won't Burn
If Sarah Palin were some sort of free love wielding hippie I could forgive the low rent behavior much more easily. But this is a woman and mother who preaches abstinence. And now she's put her daughter in the impossible position of having absolutely no choices. Can't choose an abortion, can't easily choose adoption (most good adoptive parents wouldn't want this much notoriety surrounding their adoption and any adoptive parents who would seek such attention are probably nut cases), she can't decide to remain unmarried and most importantly, she can't opt to quietly make her personal decision without the entire world looking on and sitting in judgement. This is what Billing's mother chose for her (I know her name is Bristol. That's ridiculous too).
So, what bothers me is not that Sarah Palin has a tiny babe who has some special challenges and she's not staying home to care for him. She was already opting for work over home, and I admire her for that because I was a lousy stay-at-home parent. No, it's just the timing and the realm that bother me. Pushing private problems into a public space for our consumption is not a choice that seems to fit with the platform of Family Values. The Republican Platform and the solidity of that platform in the face of turmoil is what I question. I have always believed there is no moral center there and the center-stage appearance by this teenager who got herself knocked up is the proof.
Friday, September 05, 2008
If you don't cut that out I am going to slap you into the middle of next week
I think both Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama are stylish and elegant. I'm more than a little tired of hearing about it and indulging the criticims of their choice of dress, their weight, their stylishness or lack thereof. No one ever talks about McCain's jowls or Obama's crow's feet. Over and over again, women in the public eye (who are not even actresses or performers) are scrutinized and evaluated by a standard that has NOTHING what-so-ever to do with who they are or what they've accomplished. And I'm just tired of it.
Stupid men are so stupid that they don't know that they are doing it. So here is my message to the critics of Hillary's hips, Cindy's work (and cosmetic surgeon) and so on and so on: Stop doing this. Stop it. Leave it. Behave better. Quit being sexist boors.
Stupid men are so stupid that they don't know that they are doing it. So here is my message to the critics of Hillary's hips, Cindy's work (and cosmetic surgeon) and so on and so on: Stop doing this. Stop it. Leave it. Behave better. Quit being sexist boors.
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