Wakefield for Mayor

... Or First Selectman! Last night, Tim Wakefield became the first pitcher in the American League to win 11 games so far this season ... & proved why he belongs in this years All-Star game. Not bad for a 42 year old knuckleballer, eh? I'll tell you what, he's slowly creeping up my list of all-time favorite, contemporary-era Red Sox players, which consists mainly of Trot Nixon, Mark Bellhorn, Mikey Lowell & Dustin Pedroia ... &, duh, "Large Father" ...

Creationist Insanity in the Ariz. State Senate

... Makes our woes up here with the New York State Senate look like a tiny disagreement among sane policy-makers ...



(FYI: This is Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen - a Republican - nonchalantly stating that the earth is only 6,000 years old while discussing environmental issues pertaining to whether Arizona should or should not do something with uranium ... I'll assume she's for unfettered use & trade of dangerous nuclear materials ... By the by, Richard Dawkins once pointed out that the claim that the world is 6,000 years old - an obvious Young-Earth Creationist position - is off by a factor of a million or so. He went on to add, "This is not a trivial error ... It's equivalent to saying that the distance between New York & San Francisco is 28 feet." I did some amateur arithmetic & actually found this claim to off by a factor of 750,000 ... As far as we know, the Earth is 4.5 billion years old ... that's 4,500,000,000 ... 6,000 goes into that sum 750,000 times, which would make the distance between New York & Frisco - according to Young-Earth Creationist calculations - 6 yards.)

Right so,

... Michael Jackson died a week or so ago, &, yeah, it was a pretty big deal. I'm - of course - ambivalent about this whole circus, & because I don't believe in life there are necessarily any answers to these sorts of quandaries (selling tickets to a giant funeral, celebrations of dead & troubled celebrities as demigods, etc.) I'm reserving all judgment on the matter. I mean, I guess my ambivalence in & of itself says something about how I feel - i.e. not awesome about the life of Michael Jackson - but, well, there are no good answers here.

Two things though: first, "Bad" was my first tape (along with George Michael's "Faith") & while I didn't really feel the need to dance like Michael Jackson, I did want those black pants with the red stripe down the side when I was maybe 6 or so. Second, for all the allegations, ranging from simple inappropriate (though maybe not criminal) behavior to sexual molestation to out-right pedophilia, I don't know that it can be said with any certainty what happened in those cases. Nevertheless, there was something shockingly strange & inappropriate going on, which - & this is the only thing that's obvious to me - had to do with deep psychological issues that developed both from genetic factors & also Jackson's own troubled (some say abusive) childhood. This is not to absolve Jackson of any responsibility for any illegal acts he may have perpetrated, but it is vital to understand the mechanisms & drives that cause behavior contrary to social norms &, you know, the rules of consent.

The lessons to be learned here seem rather simple to me, & they basically center around trying not to mess up your children too much & giving them a fighting chance at a normal life.

A few things I forgot to mention:

1) Happy Fourth of July ... Didn't have my computer with me this weekend, & while I twittered (or, you know, tweeted) a few times, I didn't have the wherewithal to do one of these.

2) I've been eying this old, reclining desk-chair from my office for the last couple of years, & since I knew they weren't really using it, I asked if I could purchase it. It is currently on permanent loan at my house, after I wheeled it out of the office, down 16th St. to Union Sq., down to the L train to Lorimer, over to the G train & up my stairs. Only took me 20 minutes or so, & wasn't too much of a hassle. I left my camera at my sister's place (where most of the holiday weekend festivities took place); as soon as I get it back, I'll post a picture or two.

3) One of my favorite diners in New York closed on Sunday. I wrote about Joe Jr.'s here, & I'm not being hyperbolic or exaggerating when I say without it - & the time I spent there - my personal history would be completely different. Joe Jr.'s was where I cultivated a lot of relationships in my life - best friends, school friends, professors, ex-girlfriends ... & this may sound corny, but if I've become any sort of New Yorker, a lot of that would have to do with the hours I spent at the counter, or in one of the coveted window booths. Not to belabor the point, but freshman year, going to the diner with my roommates really helped gel friendships that, believe it or not, are still relevant & special to me ... &, Louie, who always remembered my order ("cheeseburger deluxe, medium, with a cup of coffee & a seltzer"), who died a few years back. Going back to Joe Jr.'s was a way to remember him, & it just kills me that I won't be able to do that anymore. Anyway, a few of us went for a last meal on Friday night, & I took a few pictures, which, like I said, are in my camera at my sister's place. So, sort of a rough spot in what was a pretty good weekend.

Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, dead at 93

Robert McNamara was a troubling & fascinating character. That he spent most of his life after his tenure as Secretary of Defense (first, for President Kennedy, then for Johnson) wrestling with the moral murkiness of modern warfare speaks a lot to his thoughtfulness & intelligence, but, I would argue, the fact that he presided over our "defense" policy during Vietnam leaves even apologists for our policies in Southeast Asia ambivalent about the man's ethical priorities ... I always found something McNamara-like about Donald Rumsfeld, though a lot of that is purely the fact that they have - or, you know, had - a similar look about them ... Errol Morris, a fews years ago, made an excellent documentary about McNamara, called "The Fog of War". I found it on the Google Video, & have placed it below for you to peruse:

Happy Independence Day!

On 2 July 1776, the South Carolina, Pennsylvania & Delaware delegations to the Second Continental Congress reversed their previously-held positions & voted for Independence from Great Britain & the tyrant King George III. The resolution on Independence was adopted with 12 affirmative votes & one abstention (New York was not authorized to vote "yes" on Independence). The text of the resolution read something like this:

"Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved."

With this - &, again, this was on 2 July 1776 - the American colonies officially severed political ties with Great Britain & the tyrant King George III. In a letter to his wife, Abigail, John Adams predicted that 2 July would become a great American holiday commemorating Independence & Liberty from Tyranny ... It turned out, of course, that day the Declaration of Independence (which the aforementioned resolution established) was announced to the inhabitants of America - 4 July - became out great National commemoration of the official & legal establishment of this, the American Republic.

So, Happy Independence Day! E Pluribus Unum. The Union & The Constitution forever!

Worlds Collide

I've been on an Alex Jones kick lately (which is funny because he doesn't even have a tag on my blog ... I mean, unless you count douchebaggery & conspiracy nonsense), but I just found out that Spencer & Heidi Pratt (née Montag) - that's right, those silly kids from MTV's "The Hills" - appeared on Jones' silly little Austin, TX-based radio program to discuss how they've been galvanized by his dishonest collection of lies & obfuscation called "The Obama Deception" - a "film" that, through baseless assertions, non-sequitors, fuzzy thinking, tenuous (at best) arguments & down-right dishonesty, attempts to cast President Obama as sort of "Manchurian candidate" who is going to usher in a One World Fascist State, declare Martial Law, suspend Habeas Corpus & place "conspiracy truth-seekers" into FEMA "concentration camps" ... Nevermind that Alex Jones made the same arguments about the Clinton & Bush Administrations, &, oh shucks, America is still a Republic!

Jones - like other purveryors of the Conspiracy Meta-Narrative, or Modern Conspiracy Synthesis - believes silly & evident falsehoods, which I've mentioned before, & it looks like Heidi & Spencer (who go by the silly moniker "Speidi") have bought into the whole mythology, including the well-known "9/11 was an inside job" canard (i.e. that 9/11 was NOT a terrorist attack planned & executed by Islamic extremists & al Qaeda, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed & Osama bin Laden, but rather a "false-flag" terror attack orchestrated by Bush Administration & the so-called Neoconservatives, the Illuminati, the New World Order, International Bankers, the Zionists, the Bohemian Grove Club, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the CIA, NSA & FBI, Satan, the Federal Reserve & the Queen of England. There seems to be a bit of ideological inconsistency, or cognitive dissonance, here because "Speidi" claimed - at least during the last Presidential election - to be Republicans, & supporters of Sen. John McCain, & while suspicion of the Federal Government is a hallmark of even moderate Republicans & conservatives, most find 9/11 conspiracy myths ... you know, a story that claims that our government planned & executed the 9/11 attacks - to be appalling & anathema to their sensibilities. I may, though, be giving them too much credit.

There seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence that, based on their fear or hatred of President Obama, many who - & I'll put it lightly - oppose the President (either him personally, or his Administration's agenda) have taken comfort or shelter in these conspiracy myths, which have deep roots in the American Right-wing. I said this before, but there has to be a name for this logical fallacy - when people will use any source or argument to support their deeply held emotional fears or anxieties ...

I'll also add that this isn't first time a celebrity has fallen for this sort of stuff. A few years ago, Alex Jones introduced actor Charlie Sheen to the "9/11 was an inside job" lie, & even went so far as to defend him on Showbiz Tonight. I guess I find it kind of icky & weird when these two worlds (the world of low-level & has-been entertainers, & the world of crazy, Right-wing nut-jobs) collide ...

Just one more thing. I wrote a profile on Alex Jones in my frist ever blog post on conspiracy nonsense, which maybe helpful to repeat:

"Alex Jones' Terrorstorm - Alex Jones is one of the most successful and well-known conspiracists. He also straddles the line between Christian Conspiracists and more secular promulgators, as he claims to be a born-again Christian. "Terrorstorm" looks at the "history" of "false flag terrorism", as well as 9/11 & the 7/7 bombings in London, suggesting that they were organized by the usual suspects, not Muslim terrorists aligned with al Qaeda. He runs infowars.com & prisonplanet.com, two sites that act as alternative new sources for the conspiracy community, & has released many conspiracy videos, book & pamphlets. One of his positions is that the Bilderberg Group, as well as other round-table groups are part of the conspiracy to create a one-world government/super-state, as discussed in his Endgame: Blueprint for Global Enslavement."

Meet the new DFL Senator from Minnesota

8 or so months after Election Day 2008, it took a decision from Minnesota's Supreme Court to seat Al Franken, who, you know, got more votes than former-Senator Norm Coleman. Now the Democrats have 60 votes in the Senate, which is something of a magic number in the United States Senate insofaras they can overcome any Republican filibuster so long as the party-line holds. They keep finding ways to look pathetic when you think they, you know, can't get anymore, um, patheticer, but this may be the lowest of low points for the GOP ...

Is the Iraq War over?

This is what I learned from the New York Times, just now:

In Iraq today there were "parades, fireworks and a national holiday". Also, "the final withdrawal of American troops from the [Iraq]’s cities" occurred, & the Prime Minster declared Iraqi "sovereignty from foreign occupation" ... Still, it feels, you know, less than dramatic ...

DeStefano (via my sister)

My sister posted a comment on my discussion, below, of the Ricci case, & added a quote from New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, which I think is a really good encapsulation of the issues raised in this problematic case:

“I have no doubt that the firefighters who brought the lawsuit genuinely felt that they had done nothing wrong, and that they were egregiously wronged ... I also have no doubt that there is another group of firefighters today who feel that the rules are constantly stacked against them. And that when they finally do start to get ahead, the rules get changed.”

Ricci, or the New Haven Firefighters Case

Freddie at The League of Ordinary Gentleman provides a poignant big-picture look what the ramifications of the Supreme Courts' Ricci v. DeStefano decision (also known as the New Haven Firefighters case), which I'll summarize afterwards:

"America is still an experiment. If you look, there are actually very few historical examples of truly multiracial, pluralistic societies that don’t have some sort of rigid inequities or segregation. Ours works imperfectly, but it does work– and, I would argue, part of the reason why it has worked is because of a period of cross-ideological agreement that we needed to make great efforts to heal our racial divides. Now, we have walked back on that commitment to a breathtaking degree, and at a time when we have not come close to removing the Hispanic and black achievement gaps, in education or in income. (It is truly baffling that some people continue to insist that we are entirely or largely “past race”, given the continued demographic realities in this country concerning who is financially secure, who is educated, who owns a home, who is incarcerated….)

I am afraid for my country. This country has a permanent black underclass; Hispanic economic mobility is not much better. Decades of affirmative action have done little to fix that. Now, we appear ready to abandon those attempts to level the playing field entirely. Of course, principles and ideals are important. But my question is open, and I apply it to the most thoughtful opponents of affirmative action and the most rabid and unthinking alike: what are the effects, for our country, of a permanent racial achievement divide? And can we reasonably expect to maintain a peaceful and just society with such a gap between the races?

And how long can we continue to pretend that these questions aren’t staring us in the face, or that they don’t matter?"

The Ricci case, including the decision, is actually quite complicated ... The Roberts' Court ruled 5-4 in favor of white and Hispanic firefighters who claimed they were discriminated against when the City of New Haven threw out test results for a promotion exam when no African-Americans scored high enough to pass. The firefighters initially lost in district court, & again on appeal, when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (the Court that Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor currently sits on) decided not to hear the case. (Sotomayor voted with the Majority not to hear the case.)

What makes this issue complicated is how it relates to the Voting Rights Act of 1964, & specifically, Title VII of the law. Because she's smarter than me, this is how Linda Greenhouse treats it:

"To understand the nature of the shift requires a bit of history. Congress enacted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the statute at issue in the Ricci case, with a simple command to employers: thou shalt not discriminate on the basis of race or other protected characteristics, including sex and religion. But the simple proved to be complicated. An employer of blue-collar workers in North Carolina, Duke Power, required a high school diploma of all job applicants, a requirement that screened out 88 percent of black men in that region at that time.

In a 1971 decision, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a test that was “fair in form, but discriminatory in operation” could violate Title VII even without proof that the discrimination was intentional. Congress eventually amended Title VII to codify that decision, Griggs v. Duke Power. The rule was clear: if a job requirement produced a “disparate impact,” the employer had the burden of showing that the requirement was actually necessary.

Federal agencies, in turn, stepped forward to define the statistical disparity that prompted the further inquiry. Under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s “four-fifths rule,” a test that one racial group passed at less than 80 percent the rate of another group would place an employer in presumptive violation of Title VII.

The early Supreme Court decision and later Congressional ratification represented a highly visible social settlement in the employment discrimination area. But beginning in the 1990s, changes in the Supreme Court’s membership and outlook began to unravel not only the legal structure, but also the philosophic one that had kept the settlement intact."

The Roberts' Court, in their decision yesterday, effectively continued that "unraveling" of the "social settlement" with respect to "employment discrimination" law, & it was quite a blow to Affirmative Action as a strategy for dealing with our country's legacy of racial discrimination, especially job related discrimination. More than anything, though, I have to wonder what would have happened if the City of New Haven hadn't thrown out the test & the African American firefighters files suit & it ended up in the Supreme Court? Justice Kennedy's language - he wrote the majority opinion - was that of dealing with the injustice that these white & Hispanic firefighters were discriminated against because of their race ... Would he have ruled the same way had it been the other way around? I know this paragraph is kind of going nowhere, & I'm about to wrap up, but I guess what I want to express is, it seems to me that the Majority's application of Title VII is not, as it were, an Originalist approach (at least as it relates to the intent of the Voting Rights Act), &, in a lot of ways, borders on judicial activism & the judicial use of empathy ... you know, without a hint of irony ...

Sox Fans' Complaints: Then & Now

From BostonDirtDogs:

Read this whole thing.

This is outrageous, but is just another reminder that, while I proudly voted for President Obama, I will forever be suspicious of government, generally, & even friendly administrations. I know that the Obama Administration has a grand strategy, & acts with great deliberation, but I am impatient for a lot of things: the abolition of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", DOMA being repealed, the closing of Guantanamo, a complete troop withdrawel from Iraq ... & some justice for Mohammed Jawad. From today's New York Times:

How Long Is Long Enough? By Bob Herbert

No one seems to know how old Mohammed Jawad was when he was seized by Afghan forces in Kabul six and a half years ago and turned over to American custody. Some reports say he was 14. Some say 16. The Afghan government believes he was 12.

What is not in dispute is that he was no older than an adolescent, and that since his capture he has been tortured and otherwise put through hell. The evidence against him has been discredited. He has tried to commit suicide. But the U.S. won’t let him go.

The treatment of the young captive was so egregious that the decorated U.S. Army officer assigned to prosecute him — a man gung-ho to secure a conviction against a defendant he believed had committed a serious crime against the American military — ended up removing himself from the case and declaring that he could no longer “in good conscience” participate in the military commissions set up to try accused terrorists.

Jawad was accused of hurling a hand grenade into a vehicle occupied by two American soldiers and their Afghan interpreter in December 2002. All three occupants of the vehicle were seriously injured.

Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld of the U.S. Army Reserve, a recipient of the Bronze Star, among other commendations, was named the lead prosecutor on the case in 2007. By then, Jawad had already been held for nearly five years. Colonel Vandeveld assumed that the case would be uncomplicated and that a conviction could be easily secured.

Jawad had confessed to the attack and, according to the charges against him, had acted as a member of an insurgent group called Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin.

As Colonel Vandeveld began a diligent effort to assemble what he assumed would be the evidence that would convict Jawad, he became increasingly distressed and ultimately dismayed. It turned out, as a military judge would later rule, that Jawad’s Afghan captors had obtained his confession by torturing him. Then the boy was taken by U.S. authorities to Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, where he was held before eventually being transferred to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Colonel Vandeveld — “by sheer happenstance,” as he put it — came across a written summary of an interview of Jawad by a special agent of the Army Criminal Investigation Division. The summary, which was part of the official record of an entirely different case at Bagram, detailed extensive abuse that Jawad said had been inflicted on him at Bagram.

In a sworn affidavit, Colonel Vandeveld said, “This abuse included the slapping of Mr. Jawad across the face while Mr. Jawad’s head was covered with a hood, as well as Mr. Jawad’s having been shoved down a stairwell while both hooded and shackled.”

Jawad’s account had the ring of truth. As Colonel Vandeveld said in the affidavit, the interviewer “later testified as a defense witness ... that Mr. Jawad’s statement was completely consistent with the statements of other prisoners held at Bagram at the time and, more importantly, that dozens of the guards had admitted to abusing the prisoners in exactly the way described by Jawad.”

Jawad also complained about being mistreated at Guantánamo, saying he had been moved with absurd frequency from cell to cell — the idea being to deprive him of sleep. A check of the official prison logs showed that Jawad had in fact been moved 112 times, without explanation, from one cell to another in a two-week period — an average of eight moves a day for 14 days.

As Colonel Vandeveld said in his affidavit: “Upon further investigation, we were able to determine that Mr. Jawad had been subjected to a sleep deprivation program popularly referred to as the ‘frequent flyer’ program.” The colonel said he lacked the words “to express the heartsickness” he felt as he came to fully understand the way Jawad had been treated by American soldiers.

On Dec. 25, 2003, Jawad tried to kill himself by repeatedly banging his head against a wall of his cell.

There is no credible evidence against Jawad, and his torture-induced confession has rightly been ruled inadmissible by a military judge. But the Obama administration does not feel that he has suffered enough. Not only have administration lawyers opposed defense efforts to secure Jawad’s freedom, but they are using, as the primary basis for their opposition, the fruits of the confession that was obtained through torture and has already been deemed inadmissible — without merit, of no value.

Colonel Vandeveld is no longer on active duty and has joined the effort by military defense lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union to secure Jawad’s freedom. Six years of virtual solitary confinement, he said, is enough for someone who was not much older than a child when he was taken into custody.

Bachmann NOT appearing on Alex Jones' silly little program

Looks like I got duped by, well, Alex Jones. From (the Minneapolis/St. Paul) City Pages:

"Radio host Alex Jones claimed last week that Rep. Michele Bachmann was going to be on his show this week. The Alex Jones Show, a radio program out of Austin, Texas, is known for being a little off its rocker.. just like Bachmann!

So it was only a little bit of a surprise when Jones claimed she was coming on his show. Jones is known for being a little more extreme if you can believe it. He's all about the conspiracy theories, still is convinced 9/11 was planned by the military, and loves talking about the New World Order.

The rumor even made it to Gawker, which means there are a lot of excited people waiting for this interview.

Well we checked in with Bachmann's office in D.C. to get a definite date for her appearance and found out it's all just a rumor."

I mean, I wouldn't call it a rumor, exactly. The host of the radio show said she was going to be on the show, so its not ridiculous that I'd, you know, believe that (not that I believe ANYTHING Alex Jones says, but, you know ...) Anyway, I think my orginal point (that Bachmann has done a total 180 with respect to Government & Federal power & that she was for it before Barack Obama became President & now she's against it) still stands ... That, & it would have been very entertaining to see how she & Jones "got along".

L Train Strategy

On nice days, I walk from my neighborhood in Greenpoint down Bedford Avenue (from where it begins at Manhattan Avenue) to Williamburg & the L Train subway station at N.7th ... It's a nice walk past the McCarren Park, & while it probably saves me no time, it doesn't make me late or anything ... &, anyway, its worth it because I like the walk. It's funny because when I got down to the platform this morning, I found it utterly packed &, you know, at first was kind of pissed. But an interesting thing happens when trains get delayed during AM rush hour: there will be a long wait for a train, people will fill up the area on the Manhattan-bound side, & when the train finally comes, they will clamor to squeeze onto a hot, packed car. Some people will stay on the platform, & another train will come by, like, 2 minutes later, which will be slightly less packed (but the ride would still be pretty bad), & most will squeeze onto that train ... & some people will stay on the platform waiting for another subway, which is - always - right behind that second train, which is - always - mostly empty & quite cool ... This is what I did this morning, which operated both as an exercise in patience & also provided me with a lovely & comfortable ride to work. I didn't write this to brag or anything, just laying out a little L Train strategy for the posterity.

Michele Bachmann on Alex Jones' Show?

You just know someone lacks intellectual honesty & integrity when they will use any source or argument, no matter how ridiculous, to try & discredit something or somebody they - for whatever reason - dislike. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is not a serious thinker by any stretch (OK, that's an understatement ... She is, for lack of a better term, bat-shit crazy), dislikes President Barack Obama so much (& we could list the possible reasons for this position) that she is going to on the radio show of someone who ... Well, gosh, if you don't know who Alex Jones is ... How about we just take a look at one thing that Alex Jones believes & try to match it up with Bachmann's record & positions:

Alex Jones believes that 9/11 was an inside job planned & executed by the Bush Administration & the so-called Neoconservatives, the Illuminati, the New World Order, International Bankers, the Zionists, the Bohemian Grove Club, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the CIA, NSA & FBI, Satan, the Federal Reserve & the Queen of England ... Bachmann, up until the election of Barack Obama, was a pro-government, automatic "yes" vote for George W. Bush's agenda (including huge expansions of Federal power & gross violations of our civil liberties). In a world where consistency is championed, a normal, thinking person would be forced to assume Bachmann would be appalled by the positions Alex Jones has taken against the Bush agenda & legacy. I mean, Jones continues to argue that Presidents George H. W. Bush & George Walker Bush are an integral part of an evil, Satanic conspiracy to institute One World Government & that they used 9/11 - a so-called "false-flag" attack - as a pretext for invading Afghanistan & Iraq, instituting martial law, etc. Yet, Rep. Bachmann is going on his show because, in the last 8 months or so, Jones has shifted his rhetoric to attack Obama - accusing the President of, among other things, setting up FEMA concentration camps to either kill or re-educate Ron Paul supporters, gun-rights activists, 9/11 "truthers", John Birchers & the other Right-wing Extremists ... I mean, there has to be a name for this sort of logical fallacy!

Madoff sentanced to 150 years

For serious.

"Do The Right Thing" turns 20

A few years ago I was sitting in a Union Square movie watching the graphic novel-cum-epic film "300" & I looked to my right & sitting next to me was, uhuh, Spike Lee ... who, by the way, couldn't stop laughing the whole time. I gave him the sort of look like, "Oh man, I'd love to high-five you but I don't want to, you know, blow up your spot, as it were ..." & he smiled back to me. He snuck out before the credits were over. I only mention it because one of Spike Lee's best films, "Do The Right Thing", turns 20 tomorrow. (My favorite Lee film is still "Malcolm X", but, you know ...)

Do yourself a favor & rewatch it, especially if you lived in Brooklyn then, or live here now ...

(Just found out that President Obama & Michelle's first date was to see this movie ... How cool is that?)

Current Obsession [part 2]

I'm currently obsessed with Garfield Minus Garfield "... a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb."

Beach House poem

The Beach House by Samantha Taylor

at the magic hour,
the sunlight decomposed,
juiced and puddling like
macerated berries
in the breakwater,
the thought of leaving, the house
haunts us
its tender mineral scent of
old wood and storied linens
tearing through the halls
like a summer child,
filling our suitcases
with permanence.

Supine, quixotic
evening tucks its purple quiet
into tide pools as the
edgeless day
downshifts,
the soft June waves too weak
to push their pull away.

From the sand, we hear the rooms
argue
over who to keep,
the victrola pouring its husked warble
like a molasses down the lawn,
their hundred- window buttered glow
shuttering the starlight into fractals,
bone damp, exponential dew.

Such pure burn
to time capsule
the gold, accordion breeze
languid paced in the evening,
sharing enough skin
for canvas,
palms to the gale force brine,
the horizon
drunk with honeysuckle
and our bodies,
moon-burned
on the jetty
that crags
a stone
arm
into
sea.

All we ask
is to mark us
in a place we'll never muddle,
melt us
conjure a plume fog
to saturate the sound,
blurring out the
driftwood houses
that blink at our smallness.

Taste the salt on our necks
and tell us
what it feels like
to be timeless, to hollow
and float out
where a bottom
can't be believed.

John Birch Society, conspiracy nonsense discussed in The New York Times

It's pretty obvious for people who visit this blog that I'm interested in the Conspiracy Metanarrative that is pervasive among right-wing Americans (though the mindset is becoming increasingly global, & less relegated to just the political right) ... One mainstay of the American conspiratorial right-wing has been The John Birch Society, a group that helped develop much of the narrative that is pervasive among those modern Conspiracy "Theorists" (such as Alex Jones & the currently-incarcerated arch-Creationist Kent Hovind). Yesterday's New York Times (who are obviously, according to purveyors of Illuminati/New World Order mythology, "in on it") ran an excellent piece on the modern John Birch Society. The article did a great job of tying in this conspiracy narrative to modern events, including the radicalization (&, er, conspiratorialization) of anti-Obama sentiment on the right, which recently has led to some to actual violence:

... Birch leaders say this plot is real, with roots going back more than 200 years to a secret, insidious brotherhood called the Illuminati, and with most American presidents among its many dupes and abettors.

“We’ve always referred to it as a Satanic conspiracy,” said Arthur Thompson, the society’s chief executive, sitting beside an American flag.

The society, which was established in 1958, says its membership has doubled in recent years, thanks to rising interest in these beliefs and, lately, to the policies of the Obama administration. But it will not provide firm numbers, other than to say it has tens of thousands of members.

“We don’t want to let our enemies know our strengths or our weaknesses,” Mr. Thompson explained.

I originally became interested in this stuff mostly because I thought it was kind of silly, mostly benign & because it shed light on what Hofstadter called "the paranoid style of American politics" ... More & more - & I've said this many times recently - this sort of rumor-mongering, & suggestions of a grand conspiracy, which, by the way, are untrue, can be very dangerous.

John McWhorter on Michael Jackson

John McWhorter's original piece here:

Michael Jackson: The Man Who Wasn't There

I have been telling friends for fifteen years that Michael Jackson would not live past fifty, although I didn't expect to be so precisely on the mark. An overdose, a botched medical procedure, or maybe just something as fortuitous as a car accident.

That is, I sensed nothing as mundane as a death wish or as common as self-destructive tendencies. It just always seemed to me that there was something unreachably and definitively absent about the man. For all of the eclat, there seemed to be nothing actually there - surely, before long he would just blow away.

I was no more immune than anyone else to feeling a loss oddly incommensurate with the fundamental evanescence. I grew up hearing the boy-child version of Michael crooning the Jackson Five's hits in that creamy falsetto, and in college, he helped me cope with the drudgery of my dining hall job as one cut after another from Thriller became a hit and played endlessly on the P.A. system. Almost every song on that album had the precious quality of bearing hundreds of listens - to this day, who in America doesn't jump to the dance floor upon hearing the opening vamp of "Billie Jean"?

Apparently even Iraqis do: the New Yorker told us recently that Michael Jackson is preferred music among Iraqi prisoners. How many other American pop songs of 1983 get them moving? People not born in 1983 can do snippets of the dance Michael did in the marvelous Thriller video. Ever try to do a moonwalk? Even if you got kind of good at it, Michael Jackson doing it can still take your breath away.

In the early eighties there was a good deal of talk about him as the world's greatest entertainer - and it was a rare instance where the hype was more than that. People used to say it about Al Jolson - but the modern viewer is baffled as to what all the fuss was about. They said it about Sammy Davis, Jr. too - and while he holds up better than Jolson, nothing he did makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. With Michael, there was The Voice, The Moves, and a whole somehow greater than the sum of the parts.

The problem was that as he got older, parts seemed to be all there was; the whole became increasingly difficult to perceive. The skin bleaching was strange enough - and his telling Oprah that it was vitiligo and expecting to be believed even stranger. Here was a black man - and one who was a megastar -- actually using the kinds of products that look so peculiar and degrading in ancient black newspaper advertisements today. And then the facial surgery, which made him look not only whiter but more feminine.

The question, which he never even ventured an answer to, was why. Who was this personnage supposed to be? White? Gay? Perhaps we were to allow that he was just being "him." But leaving unanswered just who that "him" was supposed to be was, most charitably interpreted, too far ahead of our times. It left him a faintly gruesome cipher.

Or, why the high voice? As males mature their voices deepen: "High Talkers" of the kind depicted in the Seinfeld episode are vanishingly rare. Michael's castrato-style vocal tone was an affectation, more alteration, as it were, although likely one that became so much a habit for him that it was, in essence, him. How many men do you know who talk in a light falsetto 24/7?

One cannot help noticing a possible connection with Jackson's vaunted identification with children and his desire to inhabit the realm of childhood as an adult. And plenty of us are kids at heart - but most of us don't talk like them.

Here we will recall certain unsavory allegations as to how concretely and in what fashion Jackson was interested in connecting with children, especially non-female ones. It is unnecessary to dwell on the issue at this juncture, but what we did know is that he went through decades of adulthood without any outwardly apparent normal romantic relationship with anyone.

His relationships with his wives were rather oddly formal and brief - when Lisa-Marie Presley made sure we knew that their relationship included sexual relations, what was key was that she would feel the need to let us know that.

Never did we see Jackson with her or the other wife cavorting and consorting in the fashion of Brangelina or, in better days, Jon and Kate. These were "wives," not wives - recalling in Michael's earlier days his purportedly "dating" Brooke Shields. Today having become real to us with her memoir of postpartum depression, Shields back then was a rather saliently blank model and sort-of actress - for him, a kind of paper doll, i.e. "date."

Who did Michael Jackson really connect with? He was not one for hanging out with men or women of his age group, for example. Ask most people who Michael Jackson's best friend was and the answer would be Elizabeth Taylor. However, open up your laptop and start with a blank page. Your job is to script a scene between Jackson and Liz Taylor. How would you begin? What in the world did they ever say to each other?

During an interview with Barbara Walters, holding hands with then-wife Presley, Jackson mentioned that his father had sometimes scared him so badly that he regurgitated into his mouth. The childhood was horrific, in a way that would have left most people scarred. Jackson's response was apparently to seek a childhood he never had - but doing so as a grown man can only mean spending your life playing a part, even if you no longer know you're doing it.

It was sad to see. The essence of Michael Jackson as an actual human being was so elusive that it was especially flabbergasting to hear him, when making a public cri de coeur against his prosecution for child molestation, actually referring to something as immediate as an examination of his penis. More typical was his appearance on an early episode of the Simpsons - in the guise of an obese white man -- and uncredited. Concealment as always, not really there or of this world, albeit in the world spotlight.

This quality of his was such that his career was likely over long ago. Thriller was perhaps the last moment when hit pop music for people beyond tween-age could be so basically innocent and unprobing of the individual soul. Even back then, part of the charm was the arrangement - his vocal skills acknowledged, Jackson didn't write or orchestrate that opening vamp to "Billie Jean" nor did he create the dense festival of sonic joys under "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing),"which are certainly part of the reason I have now purchased Thriller three times.

But even by Bad in 1987, Michael's crotch-grabbing in the video of the title song was a "bad" move indeed. It was fake - looking more like Diana Ross every year, he looked about as plausible taking a page from increasingly popular rappers as Bonnie Raitt would have. It wasn't him - at a time when pop was more and more about exploring the self. As time went by the hit singles were fewer and farther between. "Scream" from the HIStory album in 1995 was the last song of his that got around in any real way.

Six years later when Invincible never really rang the bell in the old way, Jackson interestingly cried racism (against Tommy Mottola). But if anything, the problem was that by then the question as to his own blackness was decidedly abstract. Or at least, he wasn't "real" as it was put by then. By 2001 black rappers were all over the pop charts with cuts about themselves, in da club, in da car, in da hood, in da honeez, all up in dat bizness, whatever - rap is all about the "I" as some more literary-minded aficionados have it.

But "I" is exactly what Michael Jackson never wanted us to see, if he even knew what it was himself. Interestingly, a Michael Jackson circa 1980 would be a smash on American Idol today - but would likely fail to get much of anywhere afterward like Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard. Winning over a cross-section spectrum of American call-in voters today requires a certain faceless, generic quality that does not translate into stardom in the real-world market of niches and attitude. Jackson was on his way to becoming a nostalgia act.

Michael Jackson's was an entirely constructed self. The temptation to call this "quintessentially American" in the vein of the story of our President's quest for self-definition must be resisted. The self that Michael Jackson constructed was a mask. Fittingly, Jackson was last officially sighted in public through the window of his van, wearing, as apparently was his custom, a veil over his mouth - i.e. a mask over the mask.

Michelangelo said that when he sculpted the David statue, David was already inside the block of marble and his job was just to take away what was not David. Jackson worked against nature's endowment just as diligently, but surely the pale wraith he became was not something that had been waiting to see the light of day. Rather, what Jackson seemed to find was a negation, a mangling of personhood - what else can we say of someone attending a court date for child molestation in his pajamas? The irony is that despite this man's towering stature as a keystone of American popular music's history, there is surely a part of all of us that sees the man as more fortunate resting in peace.

Farrah Fawcett

Bill Maher on the Democrats

I know he's just a comedian & has a slight misogyny problem, but Bill Maher's final new rule from last Friday's show is really spot on:

Victory for Privacy at SCOTUS

So, the Roberts' Supreme Court decided 8 - 1 today that it was unconstitutional for middle school officials (in Arizona) to strip search a 13-year-old girl to ascertain if she was carrying prescription strength ibuprofen & dispensing it to fellow students. Their decision was based on the students' Fourth Amendment protection against "unreasonable searches & seizures" ... A right which I've discussed before. The lone dissenting Justice? Clarence Thomas, duh!

My only issue with the ruling is that they did not come down hard enough on the administrators who ordered the search & in fact, in the majority opinion, expressed empathy for their desire to protect the children & students in their charge". From the New York Times:

"The majority said it meant to cast “no ill reflection” on the assistant principal who ordered the search. “Parents are known to overreact to protect their children from danger, and a school official with responsibility for safety may tend to do the same,” Justice Souter wrote.

But Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not agree, and would not have protected the officials from liability. Justice Ginsburg singled out the assistant principal, noting that he had made Savana [Redding] sit on a chair outside his office for more than two hours.

“At no point did he attempt to call her parent,” Justice Ginsburg wrote. “Abuse of authority of that order should not be shielded by official immunity.”

I totally agree with Justice Ginsberg. It's already impossibly difficult & awkward to be a 13 year old, but to have to deal with the humiliation of being strip searched in school based on hearsay just seems like a nightmare.

Disappearing SC Gov Sanford Admits to Affair

Should have seen this one coming. A GOP politician disappears for a few days without telling anyone, including his family & staff. Then we're told he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, then we find out he was actually in Argentina, & that's when my cynicism should have kicked in ... But, gosh, you know ... Then, when he does come back, he holds a super hard-to-watch press conference where he admits to having an affair with a "dear, dear friend" in Argentina. I like what Josh Marshall at TPM said about this, but before I quote him, I'll only add that I do understand that people make mistakes, & fail to live up to their ideals, morally & ethically, & we should not pass judgment or comdemn them entirely because obviously who hasn't screwed up in their life? ... But I guess I do sort of reserve the right to feel a sense of righteous indignation, when public servants - especially those who purport to be "holier than thou" & warriors for so-called "traditional morality" - screw up (pun intended).

Yes, there does exists a double-standard between liberal & compassionate politicians who screw up, & those who spend their public lives demonizing & cast aspersions on people they deem less than moral & do the same screwing up ... & I happen to think its totally justified & fair ... Anyway, I'll finish with this:

"Well, I'd say that that presser definitely answered a lot of questions. In fact, while Sanford probably saw the end of his political career today and obviously deceived a lot of people -- and just acted profoundly irresponsibly with respect to his job as governor, let alone with respect to his wife and family, which is his own business -- I can't not give the guy some real credit. Unless there's a lot more we don't know, and it's hard to imagine what more there could be, he just came up there and leveled with his constituents. I'm not sure he had much choice. But that sounded pretty frank and total.

It's not a matter of ignoring or papering anything over. But it's worth remembering whoever it was who said that none of us deserve to be known or remembered only for our worst moments."

Recently added to the iPod:

Boy Sets Fire / The Day The Sun Went Out (1997)


BANE / Holding This Moment (1998)


Joie De Vivre / Summer Months (2009)

High Line on Saturday?

This map is from New York Magazine.

Old Glory

"The Growth of Our National Flag" (1885)

Thanks, Guys

From Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Alix D., Suzy, Sam Taylor, Me, "T-Pain", "Gary" (AKA Ryan M.), Erik P.J., Matty & Joseph ... Well done.

Patrick H. (AKA "Mr. Minnesota Nice") is unfortunately missing ...

Current Obsession [part 1]

I'm currently obsessed with the @petehoekstra heckling that's going on right now on the twitter. For the whole story, see here.

A Poem I Like:

Delphiniums in a Window Box by Dean Young

Every sunrise, even strangers’ eyes.
Not necessarily swans, even crows,
even the evening fusillade of bats.
That place where the creek goes underground,
how many weeks before I see you again?
Stacks of books, every page, characters’
rages and poets’ strange contraptions
of syntax and song, every song
even when there isn’t one.
Every thistle, splinter, butterfly
over the drainage ditches. Every stray.
Did you see the meteor shower?
Did it feel like something swallowed?
Every question, conversation
even with almost nothing, cricket, cloud,
because of you I’m talking to crickets, clouds,
confiding in a cat. Everyone says,
Come to your senses, and I do, of you.
Every touch electric, every taste you,
every smell, even burning sugar, every
cry and laugh. Toothpicked samples
at the farmers’ market, every melon,
plum, I come undone, undone.

Two things:

1) My softball team got pwned on Tuesday night. We lost 21 - 1 & the ump called the game after the last of the Fifth. Bright side is, I had a good time, & went 1-for-1 with a single. I also broke up a would-be double play with a hard slide into 2nd base, which felt pretty awesome. Our next game is next Friday - 26 June 2009 - at the East River Park, field #8 at 7:15pm ... That's on E. 10th Street at the FDR Drive, by the by. We definitely need to practice before then, but I think there's a lot of potential there.

2) A herbivorous ceratosaur was recently discovered & it's providing some fascinating clues into the evolution of theropod hands, & specifically the stages leading towards the development of the avian (you know, those small theropod dinosaurs we call birds) hand. Personally, I'm just shocked that there existed a herbivorous ceratosaur (I think this image shows gastroliths, or stomach stones, which herbivorous animals swallow to help break up plant matter as it digests), as most of the ones I was aware of where rather large, rather nasty, carnivorous dinosaurs (like, for instance, Ceratosaurus ... a genus which I always felt provided a classic case of convergent evolution vis-á-vis other large, but not so closely related theropods like Allosaurus).

"... tens of thousands ..."

... Maybe even hundreds of thousands?

Schiff to Challenge Dodd in 2010?

A few months ago I posted a little piece about a guy called Peter Schiff who, in opposition to the cheerleaders on FOX News & CNBC, rightly saw the economic meltdown of 2008 coming back in '06 & '07 ... It turns out that he may try to get the Republican nomination & attempt unseat Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) in 2010. Here's a bit of what I said back then (I also posted a youtube clip called "Peter Schiff Was Right 2006 -2007 (2nd Edition)"):

"I have no dog in this hunt, really, when it comes to the economy. My feelings & beliefs on this topic are still in process, honestly, & while it's nice to see the douchebags on Fox News/Fox Business exposed as irrational, wrong & too busy cheerleading for the "Bush Economy" to notice that we were headed for recession, the fact that families all across this country are struggling hard makes the schadenfreude I would normally enjoy feeling just too bitter ... Also, I don't know this Peter Schiff guy, so don't construe this as me thinking he's "all that", but you have to hand it to a guy who saw this mess coming ..."

Well, it turns out this Peter Schiff guy is quite an interesting & colorful figure. First of all, he's the President of a brokerage firm, Euro Pacific Capital Inc. & a regular contributor/panelist on various business commentary shows on television. His father is the (infamous) "tax protester" Irwin Schiff, & while this could put him squarely in the conspiracy nut category, there is no evidence that he shares his father's eccentric views on the invalidity, unconstitutionality &/or illegality of the federal income tax. There is the chance that his father's crimes (he's currently in jail, scheduled for release in 2016) could prove too scandalous to his viability as a candidate, though embarrassing relatives of politicians seem to be one of many pillars of the American civil religion. Various sources indicate that he is an adherent of the Austrian School of economics (i.e. laissez-faire capitalism, or market fundamentalism, etc.) & a supporter of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute (named for an Austrian economist who championed "free markets"), which could also paint him as a bit of an extremist, especially in light of the charge that the Institute is sympathetic to both the American Confederacy (& Neo-Confederates) & those who resisted federal intervention during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s & 60s.

Two other facts are relevant, the first being that he was an economic adviser for Texas Rep. Ron Paul's quixotic Presidential campaign in 2008. Ron Paul is both a paleoconservative & a libertarian, though he does take some conservative stands on some social issues (he is, for instance, anti-choice). The aspect of his support for Ron Paul that makes me nervous (aside from my ideological differences with Paul, or that Paul is so deeply ideological & I feel I'm more pragmatic, politically) is that the campaign brought together a lot of - it's hard to put this another way - crazy people who believe silly things. These included tax protesters, purveyors of conspiracy nonsense (including those who think 9/11 was perpetrated by either the CFR, Zionists/International Bankers, the Bush Administration, or all of the above), people who thought the South should have won the Civil War, as well as right-wing & Fundamentalist Christians, & the people who are, now, all over right-wing radio putting forth the notion that President Obama is going to usher in a Fascist, Totalitarian regime & put supporters of Ron Paul in FEMA concentration camps. I hate to play the guilt by association game, & maybe politics makes strange bed-fellows, but, my goodness, these are the fringes of the American political map.

The last relevant point is fairly obvious: to challenge Chris Dodd would mean that this guy would have to live in Connecticut (where I come from) ... & he does. He's actually lived there for some time. It always surprises me to hear about Libertarians & Market Fundamentalists in the Constitution State because I've always thought of Connecticut not so much as a liberal place but as a state that champions pragmatism & moderation - a state that is fundamentally suspicious of overly ideological politicians. This may explain why Nutmeggers vote for Dodd & Lieberman; they are fairly moderate & pragmatic, & bring some good money back to the state. Someone as ideological as Schiff would have a hard time staying true to his deeply conservative platform when his constituents are begging for earmarked money for infrastructure, school, contracts, etc. ... I mean, he does live in Darien, on the Gold Coast, which is the one place in the state I can see his positions resonating (I saw a lot of Atlas Shrugged & The Fountainhead on the Metro-North train from Stamford to Grand Central Terminal, & they weren't being read by high school students) but that area also booted the last Republican congressman in New England in favor of an Obama Democrat, so, gosh, who knows that his prospects are.

Dodd is becoming unpopular, with a few, minor scandals here & there ... I just don't know if someone whose beliefs are so out of the mainstream can win (especially statewide) in a place like Connecticut. Anyway, thought I'd throw a few facts out there ... I'm interested to see, if he does choose to run, if anything I tried to anticipate makes sense in hindsight.

(A website has been created by supporters to draft Schiff into the 2010 Senate Race. Check it out here.)

Softball

So tonight is my first softball game of the season. My team is sponsored by my friend Nina's company & first pitch is at 7:15pm at - I'm not kidding - Roosevelt Island. Looks like the weather is going to hold up - it's not supposed to rain today - & my friend Heidi is in town, so I'll have a cheering section! Also, because I have no time to stop home, I wore my jersey (#31 ... Dave Roberts' number) & playing clothes to work, which, actually, made me feel pretty awesome. I got my bat, my cap & my glove & I'm ready to play ball. I'll give you'all the skinny on how the teams does, & maybe even some stats to, if I can remember them. Wish us luck!

This morning; train-story [repost]

I posted this back in August 2007:

"... on the train, every commuter, seemingly, was napping Thursday-morning naps - with almost milquetoast expressions on their sleeping faces. And then they awoke, unsatisfied (like we've all known those bent-legged, Metro-north commute siestas to be), at the rat-race starting-line ..."

A Second Iranian Revolution?

I think that might be a huge overstatement of what could happen ...



... &, I mean, I'm no expert, but, golly, there is a lot of popular anger about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "reelection", with widespread accusations of fraud & vote-fixing. The repressive & violent tactics being employed by the various Iranian authorities on protesters could only enflame & foment an organized opposition to the Ahmadinejad regime (& maybe the regime of the Ayatollahs, though that's even more unlikely) & not just among those who continue to support the reform candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi. So, we'll see, I guess.

For now, just hope for the best for the progressive, reform-minded Iranians ... &, you know, Know Hope.

Michael Haertlein with Twisted Sister.

I mean it. This is the truth.

I hope this band makes a million dollars:

Joie De Vivre plays the music I grew up listening to ... the kind of 1990s, Mid-Western style Emo that, as a genre, is still powerfully evocative & moving (as well as accessible) but just, you know, not played anymore. I mean it; the last band to really harken back to this sound was Up Up Down Down Left R ... well, you get the idea ... & they broke up, like, 3 years ago. I hate to make pronouncements like this but I think there is a large group of people who grew up in, generally speaking, the punk-rock scene, who consider the Mineral, The Promise Ring, Sunny Day Real Estate, Christie Front Drive, Boy's Life era to be the sort of pinnacle of what Emo could be, both musically & aesthetically ... & its been sort of a quiet tragedy, at least to me, that this music - both the older bands &, you know, "the sound" - isn't more respected by kids who are in "the scene" now, & not much heard or played anymore. I mean, there's a level on which I'm happy The Promise Ring or Braid didn't become My Chemical Romance (I mean, supposing they could, & that's doubtful) because it allows those records to mature in a way they never could post-saturation, & it also makes for a lovely little mythology to develop about the time & what it all meant to us.

So I'm going to buy this bands EP & wait with baited breath until their full length comes out, & if the spirit moves me, find some friends & a car & drive to Rockford, IL (home of The Peaches, by the way) & see them live.

NY Post to Yankees: You're a "joke"

I generally only read The Post (or any other conservative rag) when there's schadenfreude involved (like when Obama was elected President, for instance) ... This, of course, also works in the case of the Yankees losing, especially to the Red Sox, which is why I've presented to you, my dear (12) readers, the back cover of today's New York Post ...

The last time the Red Sox started off 8 - 0 in their season series with the Yankees, these were the things that were happening in the world: Fenway Park opens it's doors, the H.M.S. Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic, President Teddy Roosevelt splits the Republican vote, spoiling Taft's re-election & catapulting arch-White Supremacist Woodrow Wilson to the Presidency of these United States, the Territories of New Mexico & Arizona become - respectively - the 47th & 48th States, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism opens & Sodomy is legalized in France.

Sometimes ...

... I love Shepard Smith. Like, really love, with hugs:

The Rise of Domestic, Right-Wing Terrorism

Discussed here & here ... & here:

I don't think its excessive or an overreach to see a connection between the increasingly paranoid & absurd rhetoric on the Right (from mainstream, albeit right-wing, commentators as well as certifiably insane people) & the recent acts of domestic terrorism we've seen. In fact, most people who have any understanding of the "paranoid style in American politics" could see this coming ... This is what Matt Yglesias had to say yesterday:

"Following up on the assassination of George Tiller, we appear to have a new outbreak of right-wing domestic terrorism as white supremacist James Von Brunn goes on a shooting spree at the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

Not a great deal more to say about this right now, but I hope that everyone who mau-maued the Department of Homeland Security for expressing concern about this kind of thing feels appropriately ashamed of themselves."

(FYI, I added to youtube link to Yglesias' last sentance ...) Steve Benen echoed Yglesias' point, adding:

"[Yglesias' reminder of the DHS report is] hardly an unreasonable point. Two months ago, Richard Poplawski, a right-wing extremist, allegedly gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh, in part because he feared the non-existent "Obama gun ban." A few weeks ago, Scott Roeder, another right-wing extremist, allegedly assassinated Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. A few hours ago, Von Brunn, another right-wing extremist, allegedly opened fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum ...

There are key differences between violent right-wing radicals and mainstream Americans who happen to be conservative. Indeed, I'm not suggesting that conservative activists are necessarily dangerous, violent people.

I am suggesting that it makes sense of the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate and communicate with law enforcement agencies about potentially violent extremists -- of every ideological stripe -- to help prevent tragedies like the ones we've seen lately.

The DHS report specifically addressed the possibility of violence from anti-abortion radicals and anti-Semitic extremists. And in the last two weeks, Tiller was assassinated and a white supremacist opened fire at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Republican hysteria over the DHS report -- which was, by the way, initiated by a Bush administration official -- was always based more on a partisan scheme than reality, but the incessant complaints look especially misguided today."

Red Sox > Yankees

Tim Wakefield's 8th win of the season last night (he's 8 - 3) was also the Red Sox 8th straight win over the Yankees, 7 of those wins being from this season ... This also means, in case you'all haven't been paying attention, that the Red Sox are now a full game ahead of the Yankees & have taken over ownership of First Place in the American League East, which looks a little something like this:

Teams ......................... Record ........... Winning % ............. GB
Boston Red Sox .......... 35 - 24 ................ .593 ..................... -
New York Yankees .... 34 - 25 ................ .576 ..................... 1.0
Toronto Blue Jays ...... 34 - 27 ................ .557 ..................... 2.0
Tampa Bay Rays ........ 30 - 31 ................ .492 ..................... 6.0
Baltimore Orioles ....... 25 - 34 ................ .424 ..................... 10.0

Let's hope for a double sweep tonight (the series & the season series), & see if we can't get some sort of streak going. Go Sox!

(I "tweeted" this & seriously believe that Tim Wakefield could probably become the Mayor - or First Selectman - of any town or city from Eastport, Maine to Fairfield, Conn.)

Pres. Richerd Nixon's Piano Concerto #1

I was trying to find a video of Nixon playing at the Grand Ole Opry, but to no avail ... This will have to do:



Sorry the sounds cuts out for last 30 seconds or so, but the image of Nixon the piano player is just too surreal to pass up ... I'm also aware of the little dig at President Truman - who also played piano - but since Truman's legacy, in my opinion, beats Nixon's, I'll let it go.

Before & After

The DKNY mural, facing uptown, on the corner of Houston & Broadway, was the welcome sign - for me anyways - to SoHo, where my ma would bring me as a kid to shop at Canal Jean Co. (it was like our department store) ... I know it was a commercial advertisement, but it was also rather iconic, & always there, & I don't know who saw fit to paint over it, but its sad even if it isn't all that surprising ... Also, I was always happy that you could still see the Twin Towers in the distance ...

Before;


After;


(Thanks for the heads-up, Gawker)

Fortune Magazine Covers

... seem totally ordinary & unimpressive today, but, my goodness, they were spectacular in the first 2 or three decades of the magazine's publication. You know when movies are selected for the National Film Registry because they are deemed to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"? Some of these covers are truly, aesthetically significant.

As an aside, this only gained my attention last weekend when my sis & I went to the New York City MTA Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn. A lot of the exhibits had to do with bridge, tunnel & highway construction, urban renewal &, of course, Bob Moses. The cover that got our attention - & I mean it, we were really spellbound by it - is from the June 1938 which I can only imagine had a feature or two on the various projects Moses was spearheading at the time in & around the city. Anyway, isn't the cover just breath-taking & wonderful?



This cover, by the way, was designed by German artist & illustrator, Hans J. Barschel.

FDR on the rhetorical criticisms of his National Recovery Act

"A few timid people, who fear progress, will try to give you new and strange names for what we are doing. Sometimes they will call it 'Fascism,' sometimes 'Communism,' & sometimes 'Regimentation,' & sometimes 'Socialism.' But, in so doing, they are trying to make very complex and theoretical something that is really very simple and very practical. I believe in practical explanations & practical policies ... Plausible self-seekers and theoretical die-hards will tell you of the loss of individual liberty. Answer this question out of the facts of your own life. Have you lost any of your rights or liberty or constitutional freedom of action and choice?"

I can't help but see the similarities between the (increasingly hostile & absurd) charges laid against President Obama with regard to his administration's 'recovery' policies & the charges laid out against President Roosevelt's policies in '33 & 34' ... Incidentally, the quote above is from a 1934 fire-side chat. A similarity between these two Presidents, at least from what I can tell so far with respect to President Obama, is how - & this may sound strange - non-ideological they are. I think Barack Obama is, at his core, a pragmatist, & I think Roosevelt was one too. The level of, for lack of a better term, empiracism that Roosevelt displayed during his entire Administration - i.e. trying something, seeing if it works, tinkering, scraping unfixable programs - is something we're seeing in the current President, & that kind of approach, which sometimes means letting go a cherished ideas when they turn out to not be workable, or correct, is, I think, a much better way of governing a country & economy where factors & facts on the ground are constantly changing, as they were in the 1930s, as they are today, & have always been.

beard inspirations:

Redux ...


Casey Blake (professional Baseball player, now with the Dodgers);


Ray LaMontagne (professional Musician & newest musical obsession);

Things I found on the New York Times page while enjoying an afternoon coffee:

Pres. Obama's speech "to the Muslim world" was extremely effective, esp. this line: "None of us should tolerate these extremists ... They have killed people of different faiths – more than any other, they have killed Muslims."

This play ("Next Fall" ... double entendre?) looks really interesting, though I haven't been to the theatre in a long time & times are kind of tough: "Much of this artful, thoughtful and very moving story of a gay couple agonizing over differences in their religious faiths proceeds with the stinging breeziness of a cosmopolitan comedy. You can imagine its concept being pitched to a television producer as a sort of “Will & Grace” with an ontological conscience: He’s a committed Christian, while he’s a committed atheist, and it’s driving their crazy friends even crazier!"

Something happened in China on 4 - 5 June 1989, & the most iconic image of that event is of a man in front of a tank ... "A photo, never before published, shows a different view of the “tank man” of Tiananmen Square."

Eugene McCarthy, poet

I don't if this is Wallace Stevens-esque or if Wallace Stevens is Eugene McCarthy-esque, but part of why McCarthy is one of my favorite (political) figures ever has a lot to do with his poetry, which was simple & expressive, bucolic &, in its own way, courageous:

So far ...

I've written 3 poems this year, & am shooting for a fourth this weekend. I thought that part of my life, & that ability to express myself was done & over - I'm happy its not. Maybe I'll post one or two ... or keep them to myself & a few people close to me. We'll see.

Also, I'm going through my semi-annual "let's try & grow a beard" phase. I'm gaining lots of support for this project - it's just a matter of maintaining discipline, &, well, we all now how undisciplined I am, so, gosh, you know ... It's mostly about finding my way quickly out of those weak moments, & learning how to deal with the deep coomb of discomfort between my normal 5-o'clock shadow & what could be a fairly decent version of "... Bob Dylan's beard". (If you know the reference, kudos.)

The Boss & Woody Guthrie

I heard somewhere - I can't quite remember where - that the Woody Guthrie song "This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land" is considered to be the alternate or alternative National Anthem for our country. I like that idea, & anyway, it should be. Here's Springsteen singing it in 1985, at the last performance of the "Born in the U.S.A." tour:

Recently added to the iPod:

Pete Yorn / musicforthemorningafter (2001)


Jonatha Brooke (& The Story) / Plumb (1995)

Perfect Song for my Monday

Too bad I can't embed the video; "Life on a Chain" by Pete Yorn ...

PZ Myers on morality & the murder of an abortion doctor

"In many ways, though, [Dr. George Tiller's murderer, Scott Roeder's] religiosity is going to be a distraction. It simply doesn't matter, and the strongest conclusion we can draw from it is that religion fails to provide a reasonable framework for morality, since it is so easily and regularly subverted to rationalize evil. Focus instead on the root of the problem: Roeder was an amoral, obsessed nut who found support for his delusions among a particularly ugly American subculture [the far-right Christian/American Patriot & Militia movement]. Gods don't matter. And when you think gods do, you lose sight of the truth: other people matter."

(Links & brackets are mine. Quote from here.)

The McCarren Track

Found this picture on Gawker this morning. When I feel like running on something softer than asphalt or concrete, or I want to know exactly how far I'm running, I often run on the track at The McCarren Park:

We all have dreams [part 7]

We all have dreams, & one of mine is to learn to play "Careless Love" on the guitar.

Without A Hint Of Irony [part 1]

"With one bullet, a ["pro-life"] gunman ended the life and the controversial career of abortion doctor George Tiller, killing him as he stood in the foyer of his church Sunday."

I have to say, I'm not all "Hooray Abortion!" & neither, might I add, is really anybody else. The decision to terminate a pregnancy is a tough, personal choice that very few (if any) take lightly. I think most pro-choice people recognize that fact, but see the alternative - a society where women do not possess the fundamental right to control their own bodies & destiny - as anathema to the spirit of liberty & self-determination our country was founded on. Further, think about what an anti-choice America would look like: Women forced to register their pregnancies with the state or federal authorities, constantly monitored, with intimate decisions (even unrelated to fetal health) made for them by bureaucrats. It's ironic that anti-choice people tend to be those in favor of "small government" & yet want the most intrusive form of state control & surveillance governing & controlling a woman's reproductive prerogatives ... without a hint of irony.

On Sunday

I woke up with a start this morning, & am now thinking about the shape my day could take. I wonder if my laundromat is open today? I could use some clean clothes. I should run today (I ran yesterday) - maybe I'll do that this afternoon. There is a sauce to be made, which will turn into lunch for a week ... There is a hint of aloneness in my current predicament. Not loneliness, per se, but the aloneness that follows the satisfaction of completing all my tasks, when the list is all crossed off or the new piece of paper is empty. Mostly - on account of what my sister refers to as the "mid-to-late-20s ennui" - I feel tempered, unmotivated, unsure about what I currently want ... It's funny how that bleeds into the mundane things. I suppose I could clean my house, though even that, which is something that normally would make me feel accomplished, etc., doesn't look particularly likely.

Silly.