drug laws and the New Deal

Interesting op-ed in the NY Times.

I've never really seen this connection before, but then IANAL, so the ins and outs of most of Constitutional law is out of my purview (I know a little, but not tons). I sincerely hope that there is a way to legalize drugs without trashing the New Deal. Of course, I also wanted to keep our military out of Iraq and count all the votes in the presidential election, so I am clearly a starry-eyed dreamer.

validation of my laziness

Turns out my idleness is an act of political resistance. Check out this article.

Back to posting full on in a few days I hope. I am still packing and getting ready for my move. Once I'm home for the holidays, I'll be a lady of leisure and I can get back up to speed blogging.

Social Security again

Just a link for right now, as I am feelin' lazy: Media reports pave the way for Social Security privatization. (Media Matters is one of my favorite web resources.)

I'm back (sort of)

No posts in the last couple of days for which I apologize. I am moving this month, and I have to have all my stuff in storage by the 17th so I can sublet my place. My computer's been unplugged most of the weekend as my desk went into storage. Luckily I have a laptop, so I'll be back up and running soon.

In the mean time, check out some of the links to the right: big time sites at the top, and individual blogs farther down.

Ach, I still ache from moving furniture around this weekend. How old do I have to be before I start complaining that I am "too old for this"?

Social Security

Paul Krugman has a wonderfully succinct (and bleak) assessment of Bush's Social Security reform plan in today's NY Times. Reading this article, you realize that we are teetering on the brink of the total destruction of the Social Security systems and not too far away from complete economic collapse.

Now, for neo-cons the destruction of Social Security is their not so secret plan. But, then, they're the ones who will benefit from it.

For all the rest of us, Social Security is really just a way to spread the risk of saving for retirement. It's a huge pool which consolidates the individual risk of participants and by doing so, largely negates it. I happen to think that this is one of the triumphs of 20th century governance, but I know that many people will disagree.

For small government radicals, I say this: If all you want the government to do is provide law enforcement and isolationist foreign policy, then you can get the same results with well armed anarchy. Well armed anarchy is not enough for me, so I will continue advocating a humanist, enlightenment based government which funds social programs. Otherwise, all I can do is watch my less well armed fellow humans get robbed or killed, and that's unacceptable.

homelessness redux

Well, it's starting already, homeless vets from the war in Iraq.

(Tangentially that reminds me of a song, "Homeless vets, foreign debts, AIDS, crack, Bernie Goetz. . . " Ahh, Billy Joel, why did you have to write that damn song, now it'll be in my head all day.)

loyalty

Former Treasury Secretary John O'Neil was on the Daily Show earlier this week. He cut a bit of a tragic figure, talking about how disappointed he was in the Bush administration. It was obvious listening to him that he came to the job expecting a certain level of professionalism from the administration and he didn't find it. He talked about putting together data and analyses only to have Bush, et. al. make major decisions based on gut instinct. Watching him talk about such a major disillusionment was awful, but it was worse to see how betrayed he felt about his treatment after leaving the post.

Rummy, loyal to the core, got called on the carpet by service members about the lack of equipment and support in Iraq earlier this week as well. He hemmed and hawed, and eventually squeezed out an answer about how you go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had. The man can't even give the people who put their lives on the line a straight answer becuase he is so committed to his idea of what the war should be. There's this op-ed from Maureen Dowd at the NY Times on the subject.

whaaaa?

Repugs are accusing Sen. Harry Reid of being racist becuase he said that Clarence Thomas is "an embarassment". More at The Regular and Talking Points Memo.

The logic of those people escapes me sometimes. How is it racist to expect that a Supreme Court Justice perform at the level of the other justices? Repugs are the racist ones if they think Thomas' poorly written opinions are somehow a function of his race, and should therefore be forgiven. Somehow, in their minds black=stupid and or uneducatable, but they like the visual of a black guy on the court, and they like his politics. Apparently, Reid on the other hand expects that no matter what their race, the Justices be able to write intelligent opinions, and judge cases on the merits not on preformed, purely partisan opinions. Not too much to ask, I think.

Thomas is an embarassment. I've been saying that since he was confirmed, and I am suprised that Reid, whom I otherwise disagree with, saying it.

mood ring memo

I am an angry, angry girl this morning.

Not blog stuff (none of your comments have offended me, in case you were worried ;)), it's family stuff. Between that and my dentist appointment today, I don't think I'll be posting.

file this under adding insult to injury

The smirk is real, the uniform is fake.

I hate George W. Bush

And I hate his phony war on terror, too. War is terror, anyone who says otherwise is selling something (broadly paraphrasing The Princess Bride).

Just found out that my little brother (a Marine) is getting sent to Iraq right after Christmas. I was mad before, but now, in the words of innumerable action movie cliches, it's personal. It's really horrible enough for a person to deal with the fact that her government is killing innocent, impoverished people halfway around the globe merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (i.e. getting between us and the oil wells). The fact that my government is asking my brother to participate in such an exercise is insupportable.

I know that history will judge Bush and his foreign policy very harshly, but I don't have the luxury of time any more. I am going to judge him now. He's an ass. A willfully ignorant, power mad, fear mongering ass.

So, now I am going to go to Harvard Law (assuming I can get in) to study international and Constitutional law, so that I can try his sorry, overprivileged ass for war crimes some day.

Oh, and check out this article in The Boston Globe. One more good link snagged from Gibson.

welcome

Looks like Lawrence Lessig has convinced two more voices to enter the blogosphere. Richard Posner was a guest blogger for Lessig about a month ago, if I recall correctly. I don't really know anything about Gary Becker except what's in the bio blurb on the blog.

The first two substantive posts are about the rationale of preemptive/preventative war. I don't agree with either of them, really, but it's an interesting read nonetheless.

I've said it before. . .

and I'll say it again sweet merciful crap!

via Boing Boing

never seen that one before

Ninjas killed my family

Apparently only England had the Enlightenment

Check out the first reveiw here. And, yes, I apologize for sending you to look at anything by Pat Buchanan.

This person needs to buy some history books from Amazon, instead of wasting his money of right wing tripe from the likes of P.B. Seriously, only England underwent the Enlightenment?!? Leaving off that he appears here to be confusing England with the UK (or perhaps he thinks Scotland isn't "Western" enough), what about France's role in the Enlightenment? Or has Francophobia within the wacko right in this country gone so far as to hate even French people who lived and died hundreds of years ago?

Oh, and I hate the historical perspective he has which renders Islam as barbarian. I know people love to hate algebra, but c'mon, Europe owes its mathematical advances to earlier Muslim scholars.

It's always these wackos on the right wing who complain most stridently about revisionist history who revise history for their own aggrandize the most.

Friday night TV

Just saw Richard Dawkins on Now being interviewed by Bill Moyers. It was a fantastic interview as both Moyers and Dawkins are intelligent, passionate, well read men. Note to self, ask for Dawkins' most recent book for Winter Solstice.

Dawkins' bafflement in the face of the 60% or so of Americans who really believe that the entire universe, including the earth and mankind, was created 6,000 years ago by God in six literal days echoes my own. It really is hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that people will discard the evidence compiled by years, generations in fact, of investigation and study in favor of a comforting fiction. And really, what do they gain by it? Dawkins said in the interview that living a life in which you belive in the literal Biblical creation, even after having been taught the science and evidence behind evolution, is living a life which is terribly impoverished on some level. I agree with him there, though I know that people will say the same thing about my life if I don't accept Jesus, or Muhammed, or [insert favorite religious/political/social philosopher here]. But then, Dawkins also neatly quantified the difference: science depends upon critical thought, upon constant questioning and examination, while those others demand faith.

Faith's not something I grok. I understand it on an intellectual level, but in my gut, in my lizard brain, it fails to compute. My mind revolts at the thought of God as a sentient entity involved in the quotidian lives of hairless, tool using, Earthian apes. Maybe I'm missing something obvious. Or not.

Here's my question, what happens if (when?) we find evidence of extra-terrestrial life, intelligent or not? The holy shit storm of all time, a jihad to end all jihads. You think evolution gets religious panties in a twist, wait till we find "little green men".

What does it mean to have faith in a diety who constructed the world and humans in such a way as to make its own existence seem impossible? Faith is just a way to keep us from asking what kind of God would create the entire universe as an elaborate auto da fe.

afternoon coffee break

I give you the funny.

good morning

Lovely way to wake up this morning, the radio alarm ticked on and I heard that there have been two more big insurgent attackes in Baghdad. Also, Americans follow the British lead and decide that the road to the airport is too dangerous to drive. It's been close to two years now, and we can't secure the road between the capital city and largest airport in Iraq. Tell me again how our military is the best in the world, and Iraq will be a cakewalk. Good or not, our military is clearly fighting the wrong war.

On the heels of that news, this post at Eschaton put a smile on my face. I miss NYC so damn much, especially now that I am living in Texas. Every morning I climb behind the wheel of my car, and long for the subway. Every day, I miss the neighborhood falafel shop. Every night, I fall asleep wishing I could hear the low hum of traffic on FDR Drive. Oh, well.

This article from the Washington Post also made me smile, but it was a wry, cynical, twisted kind of smile. My only consolation, and it's a small, bitter one, is that these wacko fundies will someday reap what they've sown.

the meaning of facism

If you're not reading Daily Kos, well, daily, you should start.

Here's a good entry point in the diaries: Facism arrives in America.

UPDATE: Oh, and I meant to point you to this post at AMERICAblog but couldn't find it, as Cousin Aaron was distracting me with terrible stories of gun violence in central Wisconsin: The "liberal-leaning" United Church of Christ?

Plumbing?

So, my cousin and her boyfriend are starting their own plumbing business, and are at a loss for a name. They asked us all for suggestions, so I think I'll put it to blogland as well.

Any good ideas, post 'em in a comment. Muchas gracias!

been meaning to post this link for awhile

my lazy butt hasn't gotten around to it until now: Iraq Coalition Casualty Count

at least they will appeal

Looks like another blow to the movement for reasonable copyright, this time in the case Kahle vs. Ashcroft. Where are all the conservatives who want a strictly literal, as opposed to interpretive, reading of the Constitution on this? Are they all so beholden to corporate interests that they can't make the argument they should make against all these copyright extensions which basically amount to a defacto unlimited copyright in direct violation of the Constitution? I suspect that they are. Of course, there are so few actual liberals in government these days that Repug or Dem, most legislators are conservative enough to bow to the corporations on this one.

There's a great story on this topic by Spider Robinson. It's online for free, via Baen Books, here. (Baen has also compiled a great online library of free e-books.)

comics reading

Doonesbury has been fantastic lately.

off the path today

Crappy, crappy day today. I had a dentist appointment and found out I have a huge cavity. So I get a filling next week, and I am already freaking out. The dentist was not too reassuring either, telling me that I was close to needing a crown and that the cavity is close to the nerve in my tooth. I hate going to the dentist. A lot.

Anyway, for your reading pleasure, and to take my mind off dentistry, comes this story. I ran across it almost a year ago, googling for an all night laundromat in Austin. Weird what Google will turn up sometimes. I love the spookyness of it, even though I had to wade through a bit of new-agey junk to get there. A story of the unexplained, but not inexplicable. Enjoy.

all I have to say is. . .

I think Homer Simpson said it best when he said, "Sweet merciful crap!"

And I was really excited about seeing The Incredibles. I am slightly less excited now, but still going to see it.

via The Regular

culture of abuse

Conservatives have decried the supposed liberal culture of victimhood for years. This article by an advocate for vicitms of domestic violence has an interesting take on the dynamic: if liberals really are victims, then conservatives are abusers and need to be stopped. It's an insightful reading of the situation even if you don't entirely buy the metaphor.

via Atrios

He really is that scary

A little snip from Sidney Blumenthal's article in Salon on the opening of the Clinton library:

Offstage, beforehand, Rove and Bush had had their library tours. According to two eyewitnesses, Rove had shown keen interest in everything he saw, and asked questions, including about costs, obviously thinking about a future Bush library and legacy. "You're not such a scary guy," joked his tour guide. "Yes, I am," Rove replied. Walking away, he muttered deliberately and loudly, "I change Constitutions, I put churches in schools ..." Thus he identified himself as more than the ruthless campaign tactician -- as the invisible hand of power, pervasive and expansive, designing to alter the fundamental American compact.

The unmitigated naivete of many Americans who voted for Bush never ceases to amaze me. Kerry wasn't perfect, just slightly better, and I didn't vote for him anyway. But no one can argue that his campaign and administration would have been run by a man as terrifying as Karl Rove. Not only is Karl Rove the man scary, mostly I think because he truly believes the awful things he says, Karl Rove's project is scary. He wants nothing less than the overthrow of the ideals upon which this country was founded, and he is closer than ever to achieving that overthrow. Scariest of all, his success is due to the fact that he has managed to convince the uneducated naive populace that his, and therefore GWB's, project is actually a return to America's foundational values when nothing could be further from the truth.

f***ing wifi

So the wi-fi in my apt is very unreliable, and has been since Wednesday night. It's my roommate's router, and it looks like it's working okay, but I can only connect for a few minutes every once in awhile. Who the heck knows what's going on here.

Anyway, the point of this is, no posting for the forseeable future, at least until I get back to work on Monday. It's just too frustrating, and I am at the point where some piece of electronic equipment is about to get smashed against the wall.

We are not more secure

Bruce Schneier has been writing clearly and eloquently about why the security measures imposed post 9/11 aren't really making us more secure. He also addresses the fact that some of the measures like the no-fly list and proposed national ID cards and biometrics may actually make us less secure.

His argument about the no-fly list is that it produces so many false positives that real positives will get lost in the noise in the system. Two recent events seem to back that up. First there's the incident with Cat Stevens a.k.a. Yusuf Islam back in September. He was on a watch list, yet he made it on a plane and all the way across the Atlantic before anything was done. Second, there is the more recent incident on an Air France flight which was diverted when two passengers were discovered to be on the no-fly list. So Ted Kennedy can't board a plane, but two people who are actually on the no-fly list can.

Security is important. But there has to be a better way to address this than ID cards and no-fly lists. Better screening technology at airports so weapons and bombs don't get on planes for one. And I don't mean TSA employees (T&A employees?) copping a feel.

rumblings of an opposition party?

Diarists on Daily Kos and Atrios have floated the idea that Dems need to start acting like an opposition party, instead of pulling a Joe Lieberman and becoming more "moderate." What the hell does that mean anyway? I really don't get how pandering to the radical fundamentalists makes someone more moderate.

Anyway, it looks like House Dems may actually be implementing an opposition strategy. The Regular has a quick summary of how Dems are blocking the quick removal of the odious income tax spying clause to point out that Repugs shouldn't be allowed to railroad bills through Congress without adequate review.

Good for them, and I hope that this is only the beginning. Next on the to-do list: a shadow cabinet.

Gibson, on point again

"Today, the technologies of deception are developing more rapidly than the technologies of verification. . ."

wait just a damn minute

I want a yacht, too!

must reads for the day

First, Kevin Sites excellent blog on his experiences on being a journalist in Iraq. His most recent post talks about his filming the incident, which has been all over the news, when a Marine shot a wounded insurgent in a mosque.

Second, Salon's great article on Wal-Mart's treatment of women, and the resultant class action lawsuit.

Third, Keith Olbermann's blog. I have never actually seen Keith's show on MSNBC, but his blog is great, and I try to read it every day.

more privacy infringement

UPDATE: via The Regular this provision is being stripped from the bill before it is passed. Sigh of relief for the time being.

Repugs tried to get an amendment into the omnibus spending bill which would have let the Chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to access the IRS records of anyone they wanted for any reason. The Regular has a rundown.

That's pretty scary. Sounds to me like a return of the HUAC era atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Really, I think that the Repugs agenda vis a vis homeland security and the war on terror can only lead to such an atmosphere. The us vs. them dynamic tends toward an every narrowing concept of "us" and an ever lengthening list of acceptable measures for use against "them". You can see this in the USA PATRIOT Act and in the torture at Abu Ghraib, and in the attutudes the DOJ holds towards both.

DHinMI over on Daily Kos has an interesting take on what happened during the debate and how that applies more generally to the different ways Rebublican and Democratics legislators think. It ties into the divide in ideology which George Lakoff discusses in Don't Think of an Elephant.

fog of another war

Errol Morris has a great oped in the NY Times about the images of war and how we see them.

gone

I think I'm not going to post this weekend. I am exhausted, could barely get out of bed this morning, and I don't know why.

On a side note, a larger than expected percentage of the books I've tried to check out from the library are "missing". Crazy people steal library books, and they're stealing the books I would check out, therefor I am crazy. There's some sort of logical fallacy in there, right?

can this be true?

via Gawker, so grain of salt.

Freemans tuesday night the 16th of nov. the bush twins along with 2 massive secret service men tried to have dinner they were told by the maitre 'd that they were full and would be for the next 4 years upon hearing the entire restaurant cheered and did a round of shots it was amazing!!!

He, he, he. Take that kiddos, learn the lesson your father never has, which is that money, influence, and muscle don't always get you your own way. (I feel bad for the Secret Service agents.)

comic strips

There are several I read every day. Doonesbury, as you might imagine. Also, Get Fuzzy, Non Sequitur, and The Boondocks.

The Boondocks has been especially funny lately, but check them all out. We all need some laughs.

I am not an economist

But the recent rumblings about the weakening of the dollar, especially to the extent that the weakening is linked to growing national debt, are making me nervous. Are we teetering on the brink of another depression? Maybe it's time to jump ship for more than just political reasons, and get to Europe before the dollar is worthless.

Here's a good, quick summary with links to other info from The Regular.

hippos

My sister's friend Sass is on a worldwide expedition to take pictures of hippos. The pictures are being used to create a set of porcelain dinnerware. She just posted some pics of the pieces that have been finished along with her original images. Check it out.

literary zeitgeist

Just found All Consuming. It's a cool idea, tracking mentions of books on blogs. Looking over the top mentions for the last few weeks gives a good picture of the books people are talking about, not just on blogs, but around the water cooler, too. Plus, it's like an expanded version of Amazon's customer reviews in that I can find out what bloggers are saying about a book I might buy.

I'd like to plug more books here, but as I am shopping for Winter Solstice presents, I'm afraid that the list would tip my friends and family off to what I'm getting them.

here comes the science

Finally, solid evidence that backs up my secret conviction that Superman fans suck.

Batman rules!

death and taxes and TANSTAAFL

I am so sick of hearing people complain about taxes, and how the government shouldn't be taxing us. Boo frickin' hoo. You know what, you don't wanna pay taxes, fine! Stop paying! But you damn well better not want to use anything that's been provided or subsidized by tax dollars.

Here's what you do. First, stop driving. Those streets and highways are government projects paid for with tax dollars. And don't ride the train (or any other form of public transit). No planes either. Unplug that phone. Unplug that TV, that's a double whammy: electricity and public airways. No Internet. No hospitals. No drugs of any kind (that's right the Feds subsidze the development of all of them and keep the ones already in existence safe). Go, you're off the grid, and I don't want to see you again. We'll both be happier when you and your incessant whining are relegated to backwoods acreage someplace in Montana.

I, on the other hand, will keep paying my taxes. And I'll keep voting for the people who'll go to the Capitol and state house and spend it most efficiently and wisely. They're not "stealing" from me, as you'd have people believe. I'm paying my dues and usage fees for participating in this government which is constituted of, by, and for the people. And even if I have a problem with how some of those fees are spent, I believe my qualms can be addressed without overthrowing the system.

Bjork lyrics

I'm leaving work early for a party, so no more posts until tomorrow, probably.

I leave you with some Bjork lyrics:

If travel is searching
And home what's been found

I'm not stopping

And he's not even directing?!?

Sam Raimi (or rather, his production company) is remaking Evil Dead. But Sam's not directing. And the original Evil Dead is damn good. This is like re-making Psycho with Anne Heche. Sure you can do it, but what's the point. I can only hope this doesn't trend in the direction of Star Wars like ridiculosity.

like Calvinball for the sedentary

I think this could be my favorite game ever, if I could find people to play it with.

Gibson

William Gibson, as usual, hitting the nail you haven't even seen yet on the head.

the Clinton library opens

And of course the editorial page wags are frothing at the mouth about his "legacy".

Give me a break. If a Democrat wins in '08 or if Dems take back Congress in '06 his supposed legacy will be far different than if those things don't happen. We won't be able to assess his legacy for many decades yet. Look at Kennedy or Nixon, we still haven't agreed on what their legacies are. Hell, look at Lincoln: maybe in 15 or 20 years America will be in a place where Lincoln is reviled for not letting the American schism stand and saving us from the blue/red divide we now face. It seems to me that what is labled the "Clinton legacy" in the press at this point would really be better termed the "Gingrich legacy" of "Starr legacy".

Flippancy and fecetiousness aside, what does it profit us to assign Clinton a legacy at this point?

And, by the way, I like the architecture of the building which seems to be the other major bone of contention.

can there be any doubt?

The Repugs have given up any pretense they had to a higher morality with this new rule change. So now Tom Delay, if indicted for breaking the laws of the land by a duly elected state prosecuter in Texas, can continue to practice his own brand of Congressional dirty tricks in Washington.

Does anyone remember that it was the Repugs themselves who passed these rules in the first place back in the 90's as a tool to attack Dems? I call bullshit. And hypocrisy.

and now a morning time sink

Again, this one is from Renai.

I think she's trying to completely destroy my productivity.

for the afternoon

two glorious time sinks.

full credit to Renai for the first one

is this a model even Libertarians could embrace?

We all need healthcare, government's not helping, insurance companies aren't helping, so what about the the Democratic Party? Or any party, really, as the post suggests. Politics has made stranger bedfellows.

unbelievably cool

Who know knew [geez, I conjugate Spanish verbs better than that] paper could be so fascinating.

meme o' the day

main stream media, a.k.a. MSM

Main stream media can be anything from the three big networks, to every news source outside of James Dobson's newsletter, depending on who you talk to. Usually a derisive term. Heard most recently in the discussion of possible voter fraud, as in, "the main stream media is ignoring the widespread accusations of voting irregularities." But does the main stream media deserve this epithet?

I still watch the nightly news on one of the three major networks. I'm not being coy in not naming names, it just depends on my mood on a given night which channel I tune in. Generally speaking, it's ABC until the first commercial break, and thereafter whichever of the other two is not showing a commercial, flipping each time one does come on. And I watch the News Hour on PBS. Yes, yes, all of this is hopelessly bourgeois. I also read a lot of news online, starting with Google News and Slashdot and working my way through the New York Times editorial page and various blogs. I also occasionally watch CNN or MSNBC. I listen to NPR (usually WPR, but also other affiliates) all day at work. I read comics, like Doonesbury and The Boondocks. And if it's 10:00 pm, you can find me absorbing every glorious second of the Daily Show. If it's Sunday (. . . it's Meet the Press, he he he. Yup, I'm a loser.) I am watching the morning talk shows. If it's Friday, I'm watching NOW. I don't really know if I'm a special case, or the norm in my methods of news gathering, I suspect the former, but I do know that I make use of the main stream media on a daily basis and feel no worse for wear.

The main stream media is taking the brunt of a groundswell of distrust. But I think it's a useful starting point. Every news source has bias, every news source has problems. The key is to recognize that and get enough news from enough sources to be able to assess what you read and hear critically. I can't stress enough that ignoring news entirely is not a solution. I get so angry when I hear people say this, in fact I'm getting pretty angry just thinking about it.

The meme of main stream media has become an excuse to be lazy and ill-informed. It has allowed people to, in effect, abdicate responsibility for their role in democracy.

"reproductive rights"

In response to a comment on my earlier post on the subject here.

I love this language of ours. A two word phrase can spark such a fabulous debate.

"Reproductve rights" is both a loaded and woefully imprecise phrase. It is, as I understand it, not a class of human rights unto itself, but rather a delineation of rights which fall more broadly under the category of bodily rights. This category includes things like the right not to be unlawfully imprisioned, the right not to suffer what the Constitution calls cruel and unusual punishment, the right to travel freely.

The right of control over one's own body includes the right to control when and if one participates in reproduction. I can refuse to have sex, I can use contraception, I can have an abortion, becuase these fall under the auspices of that right.

I can see that that explanation makes it seem as though "reproductive rights" are different for men and women. However, I believe that the rights are identical. A man has a right to control over the reproductive functions of his body as does a woman. If those functions different, it doesn't create two different classes of rights defined by gender. In fact, it is the belief that two such classes exist which has made it so easy for men to restrict women's rights historically.

Two other things which are tangentially related to this.

First, I don't buy the premise that in order for something to be considered a right, a person must be able to accomplish it without outside assistance. All humans have a right to self-defense. To the extent that exercizing this right in the most extreme situation would require a weapon, it would also require outside assistance since few people are or ever will be capable of forging a sword or constructing a gun by themselves. Or take the example of abortion. I would need a doctor to perform one, but that doesn't mean access to an abortion isn't part of the broad category of bodily rights.

Second, rights don't exist in a vacuum. As a member of society which has established a government of, by and for the people, I accept that some minor constraints on my rights exist. For instance, I have a right to the fruits of my own labor, but the government takes some to spend on government programs of all kinds, not all of which I agree with. I could, I suppose, withdraw from this society and live entirely off the land, subsisting only on that which I could create myself. In such a state, the government would have no claim on me, and I would have no claim on the government. But, if I choose to remain in society, then those minor constraints pertain. The tightrope which a government of, by and for a free people must walk is to make those constraints as small as possible while providing those services which allow everyone under its jurisdiction the ability to exercise their rights equally.

Rights are inherent and immutable, but the ability to exercise those rights is vulnerable, becuase although all humans are created equal, not all humans are born into equal situations. And the best governments are instituted to guarantee that all people have the oportunity to exercise their rights. Whether such a government exists, or is even possible, is a debate which I expect will continue far past my the end of my lifespan.

what's going on here?

via /. I see that Congress may be ramming through new copyright legislation. I can't figure out how is fits in with the Repug agenda, other than they seem to be trigger happy when it comes to bolstering their corporate cronies and limiting personal rights. Certainly expanding copyright doesn't do much for "family values" or "traditional morality".

One of the provisions in the bill would make it illegal to skip promotional material (i.e. to fast forward through commercials). Apparently, my remote control is now a weapon of mass destruction. . . at least to NBC's new Thursday night line-up.

It seems to me that copyright is the area in which current law has drifted farthest from our the founders' original conception. IANAL, so feel free to call me on that statement. Here's the relevent text from the Constitution, Article I, Section 8:

The Congress shall have power to. . . promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries

Not quite sure how expanding copyright in such broad terms is promoting the progress of science and useful arts, but like I said above, IANAL.

I love Russell Mokhiber

He's always good for a laugh or a shudder with his trenchant White House press briefing questions.

Hmm, I see this is the third post titled "I love _______," is that annoying? I'm just trying to make you jealous, you know.

Condi's new job

Condi will be the new Secretary of State (barring an unforseen confirmation melt down). W said in the announcement that he was sorry he couldn't give her the job she really wanted: commissioner of the NFL.

Afternoon daydream: What would the world be like today if GWB has acheived his goal of becoming baseball commissioner, and Condi has acheived her (apparent) goal of becoming football commissioner? Pre-emptive strikes against the New York Yankees? The NFC West as the axis of evil? Detaining the obviously un-American members of Major League Soccer? If only these two had managed to work out their frustrations in the realm of professional sports.

playing catch-up

I got up late this morning (headache/allergies), forgot my laptop at home, so I had to go back to get it, plus it's still raining, so that slowed everything down a lot, too.

Got some interesting emails and comments that I am sorting through, and organizing my response, but it may be tomorrow before I have a chance to post again. We'll see how long it takes to get my actual work done today.

two quick things

One for the history books.

And one for you, Renai. Though if you've read this PIPA study (warning pdf link), you'll notice that point number nine on the list is pretty damn problematic.

updated @ 3:46 becuase I got the second link address wrong the first time

I love Tom Paine

Reading Freethinkers by Susan Jacoby right now. I started to read Paine's Age of Reason becuase of Jacoby's discussion of it. I read Common Sense a long time ago, but haven't read more than excerpts of Paine's work between then and now.

Tom Paine was a bad ass, a great thinker, a great writer, and an amazing example to people of conscience who aren't religious. Of course, if he were alive today, he's never last a minute under the guns of the religious fanatics who run this country, which is pretty sad. Two hundred plus years of the American experiment, and we are less tolerant today than we were in the late 18th century.

Dean for DNC chair

This diary from Daily Kos is a summary of an article in the National Journal about the internal maneuvering in the DNC as they get ready to pick a new chair.

I certainly support Dean for the position, and to a lesser extent Simon Rosenberg. I think it would be a disaster for Vilsack to get the job. He's more of the same kind of leadership that got us into this mess. We really don't need, and can't survive, leadership that wants to capitulate to the Repugs at every turn. When was the last time you saw conservatives, in power or out, rushing to kowtow the way "moderate" Dems are these days? Never, that's when.

Dean would bring a great base of grassroots organizers who are trained in GOTV, fundraising, new media, etc. What an amazing resource, and you can bet Vilsack, if he becomes chair, will ignore it. Local level agitating isn't the complete solution of the Democrats' problems, but it's part. As is coordinating liberal/progressive analogs to the religious right. These are missions that Dean and his compatriots are well equiped to handle, but which aren't even on the radar screens of the traditional party leadership. And ignoring these goals will only further alienate the wing of the party that's already strongly leaning Green (if the Repug party can incorporate Bob Jones III, surely there is room among the Dems for David Cobb).

And while I'm on the subject of stupid Democrats, can I just say how much I hate Joe Lieberman. I blame him more than Nader for the Gore defeat in 2000; he's certainly the reason that Gore didn't get my vote. He's more conservative than many moderate Republicans, so what the heck is he still doing on our side of the aisle?

tagline of the day

Republicans: Government small enough to fit in your bedroom.

does America hate women?

Interesting take on the role of Teresa Heinz Kerry in the campaign, and the roles or first ladies (past, present, potential) in general.

Not a debate that's going to be settled, I think, until we have a "first gentleman" in the White House.

elder statesmen

George McGovern is on Wisconsin Public Radio this morning. He's been on a few times before, and he is always well worth listening to. You can check out the archived audio file here. (Think about pledging while you're there. WPR's Ideas Network is unique in the country, and is a part of my life on a daily basis even though I no longer live in Wisconsin.)

McGovern represents a resource that Democrats have long ignored, but need to draw on if the party is going to establish a sense of cohesivness: the elder statesmen (women too, it's just that "statespeople" sounds really weird to me).

This group includes Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Joan Mondale, Geraldine Ferraro, Robert Byrd, Madeleine Albright, and maybe even Ted Kennedy (though I expect that to get shouted down).

I have heard both Joan and Walter Mondale speak in person, since they both attended the same college as I did (go Mac). Both were eloquent and moving, outlining not just the ideals of progressive politics, but the necessity of a life of service.

These values are essential to the future of the Democratic party and liberal progressive politics more broadly. They are reflected in the careers of people who will be the next generation of elder statesmen like Barack Obama, Russ Feingold, Tammy Baldwin, John Edwards. The lifelong commitment of the people listed above to their ideals and to the betterment of humanity (corny as that sounds) is an example we cannot afford not to follow.

cousin Aaron sez

that Cheney isn't really like Vader becuase Vader had a heart.

Well, I'll say this, Dick Cheney aparently loves his gay daughter, and at least accepts her partner. Enough to have her on the podium next to his daughter at a victory party anyway. That to me means he can ultimately redeem himself, like Vader did.

Now we just sit back and wait for the climactic showdown. But who's the Emperor in this scenario, Aaron? Karl Rove? James Dobson? Frank Luntz?

TV crush and more

Lawrence O'Donnell's not on The McLaughlin Group this morning. So sad. He's my current tv crush, especially since he brings the smack down on Pat Buchanan and Tony Blankley every week.

The rest of the Sunday morning line-up this week is just as crappy. I don't know what James Carville's smoking these days, and I don't know what his wife sold off to pay for all the Botox she cleary had (her facial muscles didn't move once for the entire segement on Meet the Press).

I think Eleanor Holmes Norton had it right on To the Contrary this morning when she said that the radical fundies are stupid if they think that liberals and progressives are going to roll over and give up our values and ideals just becuase GWB won the narrowest victory of any second term president since Wilson. Just becuase a very narrow majority in this country was scared into reelecting W, because they knew him better, doesn't mean that we should give up on the causes of equal rights, care of the poor and the elderly, good education for all, separation of church and state, equal access to healthcare, etc. and abdicate control of this country to the radical fundamentalist movement to create a defacto theocracy which will exclude, marginalize, and I think ultimately deport and imprision the voices of reason and dissent in this country.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, Bush and the minuscule voting bloc of radical fundamentalists to which he is now beholden are immoral. The only way to win back this country is to state that loudly and unequivocally. Even if these people were the majority, and they are certainly not, majority backing does not render a position good, moral or wise (c.f. slavery).

here we go again

Yet another radical fundamentalist movement based on flawed non-existent scientific evidence.

Check out the Prevetion article for more info.

Most women use birth control during their child-bearing years, and I doubt they want to give up that freedom for themselves or their daughters.

Let's call the radical fundies' bluff on this one.

I love Bill Moyers

I found this article by Moyers which was publised back in August. Still timely, especially the last section.

The country is now being run by the most un-Christian of Christians, and Moyers is wise enough to say that loud and clear.

I am glad that when Moyers retires at the end of the year, we will still have NOW, helmed by the brilliant (and cute) David Brancaccio, to speak up for the embattled middle and working classes.

think the PATRIOT Act is OK?

If so, you're an idiot! Sorry to put so fine a point on it, but there it is. Check this out. How exactly does a permanent gag order pass as Constitutional? Though at this point, I shouldn't expect respect for anything as trivial as the Constitution from Bush, et al. Apparently the founding documents and ideas of this country are a nuisance to be batted aside, like they bat aside all the other inconvenient nuisances like poverty, public education, insurgents, deficits, and the peskiest of all: facts.

I for one do not welcome our facist, police state overlords.

hold on to your hats. . . or wombs

So, all you peole who keep telling me that the Handmaid's Tale scenario can't happen, check out this note from Salon:

The word "rights"-- too controversial for the FCC?

We live in a time when a public radio station thinks the phrase "reproductive rights" will provoke the ire of the FCC: "WUNC-FM recently informed Ipas, a Chapel Hill-based international women's rights and health organization, that the phrase 'reproductive rights' in the group's on-air announcement could be interpreted as advocating a particular political position. The station required Ipas to use 'reproductive health' instead."

"... What concerns me is the chilling effect of the world we're living in, which makes everybody super-cautious about what they say," said [Anu Kumar, executive vice president of Ipas.] "The issue of reproductive rights, like many others, has been cast as an 'either you're with us or you're against us' issue, and so much of the language is assumed to be code for something else."

-- Geraldine Sealey

The writing's on the wall people. Now we just have to decide which part of the fight or flight impulse we listen to.

sing it Stan (even though I think you're dead)

Some Stan Rogers lyrics which are speaking to me right now:

And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

From The Mary Ellen Carter (it's a ship, it sank, hell just listen to the song).

The smiling, lying bastards, they're there every time I turn on the TV. And thanks to 59 million of my derranged countrymen, they will be for four more years. To quote another song (Country Joe and the Fish this time) Whoopee, we're all gonna die!

commitment to a cause

Had a long talk with my little brother yesterday about the direction this country is headed. We have unbelievably different perspectives (he's a Marine, weapons scare the crap out of me), but even with those radically different starting points, we reached pretty much the same conclusion which is that the people in power these days suck.

We both see the inherent irony in the war in Iraq as an extension of the "War on Terror," which is that young Americans are dying and young Iraqis are dying and we're really just creating more terror, on both sides. So why the hell should I have to be worried sick about my little brother every day, when there is no way the Bush plan, can we really dignify it by calling it a plan, isn't making one damn person any safer. When in fact it's making everyone (the whole world, not just Americans and Iraqis) less safe.

It reminds me of Princess Leia's line from Star Wars: " The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." Seems like the more offensives we launch against insurgents, the more insurgents there are, and the more cities become insurgent strongholds. Oh, and the Tarkin/Vader dynamic is a pretty good gloss on the Bush/Cheney dynamic. Tarkin may give the orders on the bridge, but Vader's the one with all the real power.

Anyway, the larger point here is that my brother signed up for the Marines three and a half years ago knowing what he was getting himself into. But the country he signed up to defend is rapidly disappearing, being replaced by this wacked out Fundamentalist Christian theocracy. When his contract is up, will the America he joined up to protect even exist anymore? I'm not sure it even exists right now, except as a lingering dream in the bleeding hearts of liberals who have yet to flee to Canada.

That low hum you hear is Thomas Jefferson and James Madison spinning very, very fast in their graves. Do you think we could create Zombie Jefferson and Zombie Madison to come back and save our butts here? Hold on, maybe they're back already, and working their way through Congress. . . that explains Zell Miller!

Jake and I also talked about our usual subjects like the X-Files and Simpsons and how this is the worst episode of Stargate ever.

What I'm listening to now: Marcy Playground (ancient, just found the CD again, no critiques please, I know my musical taste sucks)
What I'm reading now: five books and the new issue of the New Yorker that just came

it's raining in Texas today

I had a bunch of errands to run this morning. It sucked, I swear, every other car was occupied by some idiot on a cell phone going, "It's the durndest thing Maybell, there's some kinda liquid fallin' from the sky in droplet form. I ain't never seen the like." I can only imagine the craziness when it snows. Makes me long for the upper Midwest again.

not much I can add to this

I really have nothing to say about the election. . .

via die puny humans

Mom, if you're reading this

Do me a favor and read this and then call the AARP to tell them to stop being Bush administration stoodges and stand up for the rights of current as well as future retirees.

That is all.

No wait, if your're still reading, here's my Christmas Winter Solstice wishlist.

eschatology

Is there a relationship between the conservatives' agenda and the eschaton of fundamentalist Christian theology?

I suspect that there is, and I have been reading up on movements in America like Dominionism and Christian Reconstructionism which seem to bear out that suspicion. I started with a few Wikipedia articles and Theocracy Watch and I have been following the bread crumbs through the Internet. The library is my next stop.

What I've learned so far is frightening. GWB's policy in the Middle East seems designed to bring on Armageddon. The economic plans of the conservatives seem designed to end all social programs in America through the expediency of draining government resources so that we can no longer afford them. (This is Calvanist economics at their worst, and there is a relationship between Calvanism and conservative economic policy that I am still teasing apart in my mind.) The perpetual war seems to play into the ideas of the end times.

More on all this later, when I have a clearer picture in my own head of the scope and influence of this movement, or perhaps parallel movements. All in all, trying times ahead in America for secularists and humanists.

my motto

at least for the time being is this quote from Alice Walker:

The secret of joy is resistance.

fixed!

I am so happy, I fixed sidebar weirdness that was happening in Opera. Thanks to big_john for asking the question and to Tomcat76 for answering in the Opera forums. And, I guess a thank you to the awsome community of Opera users who make the forums so helpful to me on a regular basis as well.

Now I can urge everyone who reads this to download Opera, without any reservations. Of course, I still like Firefox, and I will continue to use both for the foreseeable future, but Opera won my heart first.

AG is the new AG

I told a friend yesterday morning that I would be happy that John Ashcroft had finally resigned if his replacement didn't turn out to be worse. Stupid, Kathryn, stupid, stupid, stupid. Had to go and tempt fate.

Alberto Gonzales is worse. He's the one who called the Geneva Convention quaint and obselete. He was the one who wrote a memo advising the Bush administration to declare an open-ended war on terror, because it would allow them to quash civil liberties. He was one of the main architects of policies which led to the unconscionable abuse at Abu Ghraib. But he's Hispanic, so his appointment is a Victory! (For an administration so opposed to affirmative action, they are damn quick to trumpet every minority appointment as such.)

What I've read about him since yesterday morning has convinced me that he is as hardline on domestic civil liberties as Ashcroft, and even more radical in his embrace of tactics like torture in the rest of the world.

Also, he is one of GWB's closest confidants, and has been since W's days as Texas governor. This kind of relationship between the White House and the DOJ can only strengthen the bubble which W lives in. It will make him more insulated than ever from the opinions and arguments of the opposition at home and abroad. Of all the dangerous aspects of the current administration, its inability to listen to outside voices seems to me to be the most dangerous.

UPDATE: Talk Left has a rundown of opposition to Gonzales' appointment, as does Winning Argument.

unions (as in labor, not civil)

I think I mentioned to a few of my friends that I toyed with the idea of taking a year off, living out of my car, and traveling the country trying to unionize WalMart. If I didn't have student loans to pay. . . well, anyway, it's probably not going to happen. But I'm thinking of unions in the larger context of current American politics (as opposed to the way they've helped individuals I know, like my mom and my best friend). Unions have always had a big effect on politics (duh!), but lately it seems they're more noticable for their abscence.

One of the memes floating around blogs at the moment is that the loss of union influence (mainly due to the drop in union membership) over the last forty or fifty years is one of the main contributing factors to Democratic political failures on a national level. Apparently, union membership levels correlate roughly with blue areas of the country.

I think there's likely something to that meme, given that working class areas used to be Democratic strongholds, but aren't any more. Thomas Frank's book What's the Matter With Kansas deals with this phenomenon. The core of it is, the American working class routinely votes against it's economic interests, voting instead on what the Repugs like to call "values". If union membership started to rise again, the theory goes, the anti-labor policies of the Republicans would become a voting issue which trumps abortion or prayer in schools.

I'm probably biased on this issue, given the fact that my mom is a union rep for WEAC. I think unions are great, not perfect, but they've done damn good work. If you know people who doubt this, give them a list of things unions did for American workers, for example:

• the forty hour work week


• weekends


• child labor laws


• fire exits


• adequate restroom facilities

Obviously, not an exhaustive list (post a comment if you'd like to add something).

I find it heartening that groups like the AFL-CIO and the SEIU have boosted their efforts to unionize more Americans. The SEIU has even laid out some proposals for how to do this, as well as how to mobilize people who are already union members. Unionizing WalMart, which I admit seems like a pipe dream, may not be impossible. And think what it would mean to the Democratic party to have all the employees of the biggest employer in the world become union members. It would put labor issues back on the front burner at a time when the future of hourly wage workers in America has never looked bleaker. And having labor issues front and center will highlight the screwing of middle America perpetrated by the Republicans over the last decade and a half, with the willing enthusiastic support of middle America.

this is the kind of thing I love

Well, three things really.

The first is this great short film on Amazon right now. It stars Minnie Driver, as a drug addicted corporate climber, and man is she mean. It's funny, and sweet, and free for the downloading. It's also the first in the series, so check it out.

The second is the WIRED CD. The link takes you to a page which should shortly have the entire CD for download, as well as downloadable remixes and mash-ups that people create from the songs on the CD (downloads were supposed to be available Nov. 9th, but aren't up yet) has all the songs for download, and will have mash-ups and remixes soon. While you're there, it's worth taking a look at what's behind the Creative Commons license. Also, if you're at college or grad school, take a look at Free Culture for ways to get the word out on your campus about things like Creative Commons, open source software, unreasonable expansion of copyright and more. If you're not is school, you can still check them out, and you may also want to visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The third is Athena Astronautics. It's some kind of teaser for a video game, I think. There are three other websites associated with it, too. One is a blog by a trainee at Athena, one is a site tracking a vast conspiracy to cover up government secrets about aliens called Channel 51, and one is an advanced weapons manufacturer called Orbis Labs. Here's another blog commenting on it. Looks like it may be something like the I Love Bees promotion of Halo 2.

UPDATE: (10:29 am) I just remembered this, and had to add it. Jim Munroe has finished publishing his latest novel as 88 blog entries, one per day on a fake blog site. It' called Roommate from Hell, and you can read it as a series of blog entries here, or buy it in book form here. For more info, check this page. It was an interesting exercise in patience to read this one day at a time, but you can read it all at once now, if you want. The illustrations are fabulous, too.

does anyone know

if bloody mary mix counts as a vegetable? Oh, well, I had a salad for lunch.

I agree 100%

A modest proposal

via BoingBoing

Why is no one shouting this from the rooftops?

I am so sick of the Religious Right framing themselves as this put-upon minority. That is such a bunch of bulls**t. Christians are not an oppressed class in America! Something like 80-90% of Americans define themselves as Christian. They're the majority, and we have to stop them from legislating as though they were in danger of being run out of the country.

This conception of the RR extends to the way they debate issues like abortion and marriage rights. By presenting themselves as the opressed minority, they can diffuse the arguments for protection of minority rights by the actual minorities (women, gays, etc.).

So what if most people in Oregon, or Michigan, or Georgia want to limit the rights of citizens to marry based solely on sexual preference! They can't do it. The whims of the majority never trump the rights of the minority in this country. If they did, we would still have Jim Crow, and we wouldn't have universal sufferage. Equal protection under the law means equal protection under the law. You can't spin that, and the Repugs know it, which is why they are so desperate to pass a Constitutional amendment to strip a fundamental right from a whole class of citizens.

I hate Frank Luntz

I'm watching Frontline right now, and he's on. He's really good at what he does. If only he would use his powers for the good instead of evil. Death tax, climate change, I'd say who the hell does he think he's kidding, but apparently it's somewhere around 59 million of my fellow citizens. Maybe he's an alien on a secret mission to destroy the planet, or at least demoralize the populace. He's sellling politicians like he's sell sneakers, and destroying Democracy. He's something right out of a William Gibson novel, and not in a good way.

Maybe if I concentrate really hard, I can give him an ulcer. It's like in Peter Pan, when they bring Tinkerbell back to life. All you Liberals out there, clap, and we can send Frankie to the gastroenterologist.

what video game character are you?

here's me

hello DOJ stooge

I see you visited me today the 9th of November 2004 from wdcsun21.usdoj.gov at 4:08:46 PM.

Ain't free speech grand!

here's to small victories

Judge Stops Guantanamo War-Crimes Trial

letting Brecht speak for me today

I first read this back in college, but it resonates particularly deeply with me right now.

To Those Born After

I

To the cities I came in a time of disorder
That was ruled by hunger.
I sheltered with the people in a time of uproar
And then I joined in their rebellion.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.

I ate my dinners between the battles,
I lay down to sleep among the murderers,
I didn't care for much for love
And for nature's beauties I had little patience.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.

The city streets all led to foul swamps in my time,
My speech betrayed me to the butchers.
I could do only little
But without me those that ruled could not sleep so easily:
That's what I hoped.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.

Our forces were slight and small,
Our goal lay in the far distance
Clearly in our sights,
If for me myself beyond my reaching.
That's how I passed my time that was given to me on this Earth.

II

You who will come to the surface
From the flood that's overwhelmed us and drowned us all
Must think, when you speak of our weakness in times of darkness
That you've not had to face:

Days when we were used to changing countries
More often than shoes,
Through the war of the classes despairing
That there was only injustice and no outrage.

Even so we realised
Hatred of oppression still distorts the features,
Anger at injustice still makes voices raised and ugly.
Oh we, who wished to lay for the foundations for peace and friendliness,
Could never be friendly ourselves.

And in the future when no longer
Do human beings still treat themselves as animals,
Look back on us with indulgence.

Bertolt Brecht

death of the Enlightenment

I read this NY Times article on Thursday.

To me, what we have to draw from this is not a nostalgia for the 18th century. Instead we have to reframe the debate with fundamentalist Christians who deny the Enlightenment foundations of this country in favor of an ex post facto concept of Christian nationalist founders.

Not a single one of the men who founded this country embraced the Christianity of George W. Bush. And not a single one of them would be happy with the assault on science, reason, and empiricism being perpetrated by the party in power.

When the neo-cons talk about a return to "traditional values'' they are not talking about the tradition of America. They are talking about the tradition of a small segment of America, and the values of this small segement are largely those which this country was designed to escape.

America's true traditional values are freedom, equality, justice, reason, and tolerance. These are also the core values of liberals/progressives/Democrats.

Saturday morning, the Times carried two more op eds, one by Nicholas Kristof and David Brooks. The gist of both being: Democrats need to move to the right and embrace fundamentalist Christianity, to aid and abet the Republicans in order to retain what little power they have left. I am sure that the Republicans, who have themselves spent the last 40 years running to the right, would love that. But the truth is, if we want to take back control of this country, we have to run to the left. This is not to say that we fulfill the stereotype constructed by Luntz, et al of the disengaged, latte swilling, Vidal reading left-wing wacko. For one thing, I know more conservatives than liberals who make the daily pilgrimage to Starbucks. For another, to the extent that we "lost" middle America, we lost it becuase they forgot all they owe to progressive politics: Social Security, employer provided health insurance, weekends (unions, woot!), the Internet, public education, and yes, more religious tolerance (not religious rule disguised as tolerance).

So, we champion these values. We stand up for the litte guy, instead of standing on the little guy. We reconnect America's heart to its brain. We return to reason, and resuscitate the Enlightenment. Or, we accept the dawning theocracy and wind up like other modern theocracies, impoverished, terrorized, and isolated from the rest of the world.

not politics

Well, most of the people visiting this blog are using Internet Explorer. Not good, people. And I won't even discuss the AOL and WebTV users, to paraphrase a play I saw once "Ach, the feckin' WebTV users!" That will make no sense to anyone reading this, but I don't care.

Here are two alternate browsers. First Firefox. Second Opera. The blog looks a bit crap in Opera right now, I am still toying with the HTML, but this may take awhile as it has been years since I wrote any HTML.

Both are free. Firefox is probably a bit easier to use coming from IE. Opera has an integrated mail client (which is really easy to use, and has some cool features) and some other stuff I couldn't live without, but most people would not miss. Plus it's a bit more difficult to set up.

What I'm listening to now: The Wired CD

What I'm reading now: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (see Renai, occasionally I do take your advice)

fortune cookie

This is what my fortune cookie from Sunday night dinner (Buddha's Delight, yum!) told me: "It is proper to speak the truth." Right on fortune cookie, I couldn't agree more. In fact, I may tape this fortune to a letter and mail it to Karl Rove. I'd send it to W. but I doubt his literacy.

Another thought occured to me Sunday night when I heard about the impending DVD release of the first few seasons of MacGyver on DVD. MacGyver had a quality I find really sexy, and I think we need to cultivate in our leaders: cool, unassuming competence. MacGyver got his job done, with whatever he had to hand, with no whining and no dithering. Wes Clark has this quality, and so did Colin Powell before his Bushie sell-out. I suspect that John Edwards could also have this quality, my experience is that sucessful trial lawyers usually do. Madeleine Albright has it too, which I think is evidenced by her negotiations with Kim Jong Il. George Bush is utterly lacking competence of any kind, and his administration is quickly losing any pretensions in that direction they may have had. It may be that we can appeal to the vast middle of America by exuding cool competence just as Bush has appealed to them with his "aww shucks" [fake] folksyness.

email from a freind re: the impending crisis in women's health

a freind sent me this as an email this morning:

President Bush has announced his plan to select Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. The committee has not met for more than two years, during which time its charter lapsed. As a result, the Bush Administration is tasked with filling all eleven positions with new members. This position does not require Congressional approval. The FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee makes crucial decisions on matters relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics, gynecology and related specialties, including hormone therapy, contraception, treatment for infertility, and medical alternatives to surgical procedures for sterilization and pregnancy termination.

Dr. Hager, the author of "As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now." The book blends biblical accounts of Christ healing Women with case studies from Hager's practice. His views of reproductive health care are far outside the mainstream for reproductive technology. Dr. Hager is a practicing OB/GYN who describes himself as "pro-life" and refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. In the book Dr. Hager wrote with his wife, entitled "Stress and the Woman's Body," he suggests that women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome should seek help from reading the bible and praying. As an editor and contributing author of "The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality Reproductive Technologies and the Family," Dr. Hager appears to have endorsed the medically inaccurate assertion that the common birth control pill is an abortifacient.

We are concerned that Dr. Hager's strong religious beliefs may color his assessment of technologies that are necessary to protect women's lives for to preserve and promote women's health. Hager's track record of using religious beliefs to guide his medical decision-making makes him a dangerous and inappropriate e candidate to serve as chair of this committee. Critical drug public policy and research must not be held hostage by antiabortion politics. Members of this important panel should be appointed on the basis of science and medicine, rather than politics and religion. American women deserve no less. There is something you can do. Below is a statement to be sent to the White House, opposing the placement of Hager.

(1) Please copy and paste (DON'T forward) the entire email into a fresh email; then sign your name below. After you sign, SEND THIS TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW WHO IS CONCERNED ABOUT WOMEN'S RIGHTS.

(2) Every 10th person who signs the list (i.e., #10, #20, #30, etc.) - please forward the entire e-mail to president@whitehouse.gov

We oppose the appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Mixing religion and medicine is unacceptable in a policy-making position. Using the FDA to promote a political agenda is inappropriate and seriously threatens women's
health. Members of this important panel should be appointed on the basis of science and medicine, rather than politics and religion. American women deserve no less.

UPDATE: According to Snopes this guy already got appointed, so it's worse than we thought. Ah well, I never really expected science to survive Bush II term two.

crap

one last thing before I go

utter, utter crap

elitism

The Zeitgeist is telling me this this morning: Liberals are elistist because they want to legislate based their readings of many books. Conservatives are not elitist becuase they want to legislate based on their reading of just one.

Sometimes the Zeitgeist really pisses me off.

Anyhoooo, I'm tuning out for the rest of the weekend, I'm gonna drown my pain in BBC adaptations of Jane Austen and massive quantities of junk food. Which I guess is elitist. Damn.

overwrought?

A friend read this blog the other day, and told me I am overreacting. I don't think that's true.

I really do think that we are in a fight for our lives, so far figuratively, but I don't rule out literally.

More importantly, I think we need to act as though this is life or death, becuase that is the only way we can disturb the political complacency of marginal Bush voters, i.e. those people who voted for Bush on the basis of the "stong leader" metric, but don't agree with him on abortion, social security, gay marriage, etc.

We need to convince the moderate middle in America that their needs, both financial and social, are better served when Democrats are in power. This is harder than it should be, given that we have historical fact on our side.

It's time to bring the 30% of America in the middle into the fold of the reality based community.

the only Grover who deserves TV time

Yes, I really dislike Grover Norquist.

the new geography

The first one of these puts me in mind of the book Non Campus Mentis by Anders Henriksson.

That book is a collection of funny things college students wrote on exams and papers, including a rundown of the things you can expect the average college student to know which I will quote here.

1. At some point in the distant past The US fought a war of independence against a major European or Asian power. An extraordinary tea party was a factor.
2. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy and Richard Nixon served as presidents of the US....
3. The US still suffers from the horrors of its slaveholding past, whenever that was. The Civil War, which took place sometime between 1750 and 1930, was mixed up with this.
4. Adolf Hitler (a foreigner of some kind) was a very bad man.
5. There was at least one World War, but absolutely not more than three.

the stormtroopers in my uterus

I'm not a Constitutional scholar. Unfortunately, neither is Clarence Thomas, and you can bet no one else Bush nominates to the SCOTUS will be either [tangent: does SCOTUS sound vaguely dirty to anyone else?].

Say what you will about William Rehnquist, but the man has a scholarly gravitas which I respect even though I don't agree with him on much, if anything. Thomas on the other hand has the scholarly qualifications of a moray eel. And he's W's favorite Justice. D'oh!

So, what does this mean for the next 30 years of jurisprudence in this country?

First, kiss Roe v. Wade goodbye. Young women who didn't vote this election are going to have a rude wake-up call during the second Bush administration. Not only will they see their right to equal access to healthcare disappear, but I predict that the wage gap will increase, single moms will be increasingly persecuted, and attitudes towards all women will become less tolerant. Banning abortion is the thousandth step in the Christian Right's war on the feminine

Second, gay marriage bans have much less chance of being struck down. For all that conservatives argue for a strict interpretation of the Constitution to try to skirt the wall between church and state, and avoid applying "unreasonable search and seizure" unless it suits them, they like to overlook the Fourteenth Amendment. Really, how hard is it to comprehend "nor shall any State. . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." And if that's not good enough, how about this: Amendment IX: The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Third, expect major portions of the USA PATRIOT Act to be upheld. Rumor is that John Ashcroft will step down for Bush's second term. It's worth remembering that he will leave office having convicted exactly zero terrorists, even with the PATRIOT Act. It's also worth rememebering that Ben Franklin said "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Fourth, expect that John Gilmore will lose his case before the Court. We are all so used to showing ID at the airport, at the train station, at the bus depot, at national parks, that we don't stop to examine the reasons or weigh the benefits. People with more security expertise than I will ever possess have explained why ID checks make us less secure.

There's more, of course, there's always more. Welcome to the United States of Jesus, ladies and gentelmen, where if Jesus were alive today his Middle Eastern looks and radical ways would land him in Gitmo.

as I suspected

from BoingBoing:

Palast: Kerry won, here's the facts.

UPDATE: Voting machine miscounts, gives Bush 3983 extra votes.

And you thought Canada was your only option

I found this article via /. this morning and I think it makes two important points:

1. Clearly America is losing its position as an economic superpower. This is largely becuase other countries, many of them in southeast Asia, have embraced innovation and progress in a way we have not since the 1950's.

2. China sounds like a truly interesting place to live. With the way things are going here, we can probably call the difference between civil liberties here and there a wash.

where we go from here

I've been reading other people's blogs/sites for the last few months (see side bar for some suggestions). But the devastating outcome of Tuesday's election brought me back to the writing end of the blogosphere.

I know a lot of conservatives, you probably do to, so I want to share with you what I am telling them, now and from now on. I hope you can use it too, to talk to the people you work with, worship with, or just meet:

"We, liberals, progressives, Democrats, have played Vichy to your Third Reich for too long. We will not be the go along, get along collaborationists you're used to any more.

Your ideals are immoral, and your worldview can only lead to the ultimate destruction of the planet.

Our government is a government of the majority which rules with the consent of the minority. I withhold my consent. I will not consent to racists, mysogynists, homophobes, and religious extremisists.

I will fight you with every breath I have left in my body. My children will fight you. My grandchildren will fight you. No matter how many generations of us you hold in bondage, know this: WE WILL WIN!"

We have to speak this truth to people, we have to frame the debate in our terms, we have to take back the United States.

What I'm reading now: Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff

What I'm listening to now: South African Freedom Songs (Mayibuye America: Let America come back)

the mourning after

I have been crying all morning. I really can't think of what to do, I mean, it is like watching a friend die. And I keep telling myself that this hour is no darker for us than the early '60s were for conservatives, and look what they've accomplished. And I don't want to have to deal with Repugs at work. I just want this to go (miraculously) to Kerry so I can breath a qualified sigh of relief. But that's not gonna happen, is it. So option two is to go home and crawl under the covers and stay there until 2008.

My two hopes for the upcoming four years:

1. A schism in the Republican party between conservatives and neocons which leads them to lose the cohesiveness they depend on. Many of the moderate and even conservative (fiscal not compassionate) members of the party have predicted this.

2. A rallying of the Liberal base of the Democratic party around the rising stars of Newsome, Obama, Granholm, Feingold, etc. leading to a strong 2008 win of the presidency and Congress. And maybe even a strong showing in the mid-term elections in 2006 which will let us take back Congress then.

Try to smile, and remember that we can escape the bondage of conservative social policy just as so many other groups have escaped bondage in the past. In his darkest, most tortured moments on Robin's Island, Nelson Mandela never gave up hope. Elizabeth Cady Stanton never gave up hope, even though the US was the last modern country to give women the vote. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. never relinquished their hold on hope, even though Jim Crow prevailed throughout the south.

Most importantly, the men who founded this country did so out of a deep and abiding hope and belief in this experiment in representitive Democracy. We can't give up hope, if only because to do so would be to reject the very foundational precepts of America. We have to know in our hearts that people can successfully govern themselves and make the world a better place, and then we have to act.

I saw it! You should too.

I really didn't expect it to be so difficult to see Fahrenheit 9/11. Yes, it was opening night, but I've seen plenty of films opening night. This was the first time I had to go to three differnt theaters to find one with tickets still available.

I got to the Barton Creek theater at about 7:45 after hitting the Dobie (sold out) and the Arbor (sold out). Turns out Barton Creek still had tickets for the 10:20 show, so I bought one, and headed out to kill a few hours at the mall.

How much I hate the American institution of the shopping mall is really a topic for another post. Suffice it to say, I spent an almost uniformly irritating two hours wandering around. The one bright spot was the Apple store, which was actully pretty relaxing, until I realized that there is no way I can afford all the Apple gear I want.

So, when the mall shops closed at 9:00, I grabbed a bite in the food court (some of the counters were still open). Then I headed down to the theater to find a place to sit and wait for the movie.

When I got there I was shocked by the number of people in line outside the doors, many of them in the rain because there wasn't room for everyone in the small area of the entrance plaza that's covered. It was about 9:20, so I figured that these people were in line for the 10:20 show. That sucked, I figured I'd never get a decent seat. I asked a woman waiting in line, and she told me it was actually the line for the 9:30 show. They hadn't started seating yet. In fact the 7:00 show hadn't gotten out of the theater yet. That group began trickling out of the auditoriums (yes, plural, by this time it was on 6 screens) around 9:45. They didn't start seating the 9:30 show until after 10:00.

As soon as all the 9:30 people were through the doors, the ushers started lining us up for the 10:20 show. Luckily we got to stand inside since the mall was closed and we could block the doors to the shops without causing traffic problems. The theater staff, a pretty cheery and courteous group considering the crowds they were dealing with, started to get us into auditoriums around 10:15. That's when I noticed all the mall security and what looked like a couple of APD officers, though I didn't get a close look at them.

Then the real waiting started. Times like that make me glad that I have so many ebooks on my Visor. The lights dimmed for the pre-show "entertainment" at around 11:10. They made a new Phantom of the Opera movie, who knew? The film itself started about 10 minutes later to a smattering of applause. I think most people were too interested in catching every second of the film to applaud and risk missing anything.

The film itself is hard to quantify. I certainly can't sum it up neatly in a few sentences. I laughed, which I knew I would. Michael Moore is a terrifically funny man. His greatest skill in this area is demonstrated in the juxtapositions of archival footage, music, and voice over. I'm not the first one to say this, but the real strength of this movie is the editing. Well, the first section is fairly typical Moore. It's a recap of the 2000 election debacle, with a few well placed digs at Fox News, George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, and the Supreme Court. There are other funny moments later on in the film, especially when Moore tries to get members of Congress to have their children enlist in the Armed Services.

Here's the thing, you know Michael Moore can be funny, or you should by now. I'd rather tell you about the parts of this film that made me cry, and the parts that made me sick to my stomach.

I was a little suprised to find myself with tears streaming down my face during the footage of the World Trade Center bombing. We didn't even see the towers, just the people on the streets of Manhattan that day, and their reactions. I was there that day, too. This just brought it all back to me, the fear, the uncertainty, the helpless feeling that I was watching a tragedy and I couldn't help.

Okay, I got to this point and I had to stop. It's too depressing, and I think I need to see this film again and take notes to really do it justice.

For the time being, I will leave you with three of the shots that are burned into my mind. A small Iraqui child, lying on a gurney screaming, with his left arm torn open to the bone from elbow to wrist. An American soldier caught in a bomb blast somewhere in Iraq, lying on the ground screaming, with wounds on his head leaking blood while his fellow soldiers try to stop the bleeding and get him out of harm's way. George W. Bush sitting behind his desk in the Oval Office, mugging for the camera and getting his hair done, moments before telling the nation that the invasion of Iraq has started.

Farenheit 9/11

I'm off to see Michael Moore's newest film tonight after work. I'm pretty excited, and hoping for a good crowd at my local indie theater. I may post a reveiw after I see it. Or I may be on the first flight out to Canada to escape the scariness that is the Bush administration.

I'm really starting to hate George Lucas

So Lucas announced last week that he will only release the Special Edition of the classic Star Wars Trilogy on DVD. He spewed a lot of artistic crapola to justify this decision. But really what it boils down to is ego and money.

Now, the original Star Wars Trilogy is my Kevin Bacon... just six degrees from Star Wars to everything else I love. And my life is based on connections and my apophenia just will not accept the Special Edition. So this is bad for me on a psychological level. I think I'll be traumatized for life. No, wait that already happened when I saw Episode I.

But really, this is bad on a much broader scale. I'm a student of film, and the loss of the original theatrical release of Star Wars is a blow to the study of film. Whether you like these movies or not (and I am well aware that many in academia don't), they define a moment in movie making and ushered in the age of computer special effects. For George Lucas to hold them back in a fit of prima donna-like, ego fueled pique is irresponsible as a movie maker who owes a debt not just to the fans, but to the history of film as a medium and an art.

You can sign a petition for the release of the original theatrical cut of the films on DVD here. It probably won't do any good, but I guess it can't hurt to try.