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John Edwards on Now...talking about poverty and interconnectedness
July 27, 2008
I had to show this video to all of my friends, and now I am sharing it with you. I can't remember the last time I have seen a politician addressing not only poverty with such absolute understanding of the issue, but also the interconnectedness of people and all of the issues we face as a nation and a world.
This quote made me cry:
"One of the greatest responsibilities of the next president is to convince americans that we are completely linked to one another, both as americans, AND we're completely linked to the people in the rest of the world. In fact, we are all ENTIRELY connected." -John Edwards
Here's the link. Watch it all. It's amazing.
Brancaccio: What is it about now...that gives you any hope?
Edwards: That we're faced with great challenges that can not be dealt with, except together.
Thinking about Rev. Jeremiah Wright...
April 27, 2008
Moyers did an interview with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright that I thought was just spectacular. The whole Wright/Obama backlash thing really sticks in my craw. First of all, because...seriously...if they are going to start holding all candidates accountable for the opinions of others, I am sure there are a few other politicians whose pastors, reverends, AND FAMILY MEMBERS espouse racist and sexist bullshit that is far more offensive to me than anything Wright could come up with. And what is more damning to America than that, god damnit!?
*Edited to clarify* I have been trying to find a way to convey the above idea without implying that Wright's comments were racist. I don't think they were. What I was instead saying is that the racism and sexism that is expressed around the dinner table in many families is more offensive than the alleged "Anti-American" sentiments expressed by Wright in his much-publicized PORTION of a speech.
Follow-up to obligatory political post
January 9, 2008
You know, I hate to sound like I'm throwing myself some sort of weird superstitious pity party...but I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut about what I desire. Because it never fails. It's not really that I always cheer for the underdog...instead, it seems like whoever I cheer for somehow ends up becoming the underdog.
hahaha.
Obligatory political post
January 8, 2008
By the way...I am astonished to discover that I might actually feel semi-ok about actually voting for people who might win in an election. So I thought I would share that I am really kind of hoping for an Obama/Edwards ticket in November. Hillary can bite me. hahaha.
The Department of "Who Do We Think We Are Fooling?"
May 24, 2007
A couple of news items have really struck me in the past few days. Last night, I was driving around listening to an NPR (or maybe it was The World...yeah, it was The World) report about the U.S. Embassy in Iraq...the only rebuilding project that is being completed on time and within budget (must have been a HUGE budget) on some of the best land in Baghdad. When the reporter was asked how the U.S. acquired the land, she gave some vague reply about how, in these kinds of deals, the land is usually bought by the other nation or given as a gift. She never really said if either of those was the method by which the U.S. acquired the land...she just said something about how there are hopes that this will be land that is used for diplomatic purposes:
he complex is to be 104 acres, six times the size of the United Nations' property in New York and approximately the same size as the Vatican. It has fortified walls and apartments inside for 615 staffers, to spare them the risk of having to go out on the actual streets of, you know, Iraq. Despite American vows to return normalcy, the new long-term home seems to bet on decades of chaos: Behind the walls, it has water-treatment facilities to cope with the Iraqi capital's lack of potable water, power generation to compensate for Baghdad's erratic electricity, as well as a food court, beauty parlor, pool, gym, and club. All surely necessary to keep staffers safe and sane in unimaginably difficult working conditions. But not quite the kind of facility you build for the long run in one of those normal, friendly countries that Iraq was supposed to become.
And now this...to which I can only say...WHAT THE FUCK?
Why We Banned Legos
March 1, 2007
"Why We Banned Legos" is an article in a magazine I subscribe to called Rethinking Schools. I wish the article was accessible online without fee, but unfortunately it is not, so I will attempt to summarize it here.
Basically, a group of teachers in an after school program at a school in Washington State were struck by the social dynamics surrounding the construction of a Lego town. They found that kids were excluding other kids and hording "cool pieces" in an insidious way that wasn't always vocally objected to (in fact, many of the excluded kids seemed resigned to exclusion, in spite of the fact that they later proved that they wished to participate and did not know how to break through the invisible wall). So, the teachers banned the Legos and created a unit study to examine the issues of wealth, power, privilege, and inclusion with their students (ages 5-9).
The original article goes on to describe a fascinating and well-organized exploration of this concept designed by the teachers. Students were asked to voice their opinions about property rights, ownership, and power...and they examined those opinions by taking field trips and playing games that were geared towards helping the children question the notion that power can somehow be benign and that really brought the idea of meritocracy into sharp focus for these children.
However, the reinterpretation of this article is somewhat staggering and reveals much about how strongly we want to protect the idea that the capitalist system of meritocracy. An article was sent to a homeschooling list I subscribe to that basically completely misinterprets the lesson in such a way that it could only have been intentional. I responded to the article thusly:
I suggest you read the actual article on which this editorial is based before leaping to the conclusion that the crafters of this lesson were in any way advocating that landowners be stripped of their property rights so big businesses can have them. I have this issue, and I have only skimmed the article, but I find the article below to be grossly slanted and inaccurate.[...]
In fact, now that I think about it...it would be a really good homeschooling lesson on media to read this editorial and then go back and read the actual article about the lesson to note the evident slant of the editorialist.
Of course, the response to this was to skip right to communism. One of my fellow listmates said, basically, that while he believed the article wasn't supporting the usurpation of property by big business, he did feel that the lesson was promoting communism, to which I replied:
I imagine the responses on this list will also be useful in a study of media, as well as individual responses to the media. It is interesting to me that Brad has immediately decided that the only possible system of shared wealth is communism, and therefore declared any questioning of how property rights are handled in our society to be answered before they are even asked.I think critical thinking would encouage children to experiment with several alternative methods of creating equity, and from what I have read in the original article, it looks like that is exactly what the children were encouraged to do.
Of course, all of that was before I actually read the article. hahaha. I had skimmed it, but had not had time to sit down and read it. Later that night, I did so, and found the lesson to be quite well-planned and executed, and nothing at all like it had been described by the author of the editorial linked above. So, this morning when I found another response that insisted the lesson was an insidious method of brainwashing our children to accept the tenets of communism (evil, evil communism!) I responded:
If you read the article, you would find that property rights were a very minute portion of the lesson. The main objective of the lesson was to encourage egalitarian and inclusive behavior among the children, while at the same time exploring the larger issues of power and privilege. Also, there was a lot of discussion and insight in the article about how we tend to assume that power is benign if it is not misused in such a way that would spark verbal protest. There was a really interesting portion of the lesson where arbitrary point values were applied to legos (to mirror how privilege based on skin color, family of origin, and other factors give some of us an unearned advantage over others), and those who "won" were allowed to make rules for the next round of the game.Additionally, there is a huge leap from discussing equitable sharing of resources by a community and stripping individuals of rights to give them to corporations. The point of the experiment, and I think the objective of a communal social order (of which communisim is ONE example), is to distribute wealth and power in such a way that all members of society have an opportunity to participate. Perhaps we haven't seen such a social order yet in our lifetimes, but I am not sure why anyone would object to exploring how power and privilege operate in our society to give unearned advantage to some and undeserved disadvantage to others.
Later, someone equated the lesson with that urban legend that has a child skipping to school with all of her wonderful school supplies, only to get there and find that she is FORCED to dump her supplies in a communal bucket and comes away with *gasp* INFERIOR CRAYONS! Evidently, those individuals who send their children to public school to mix with the masses are very indignant about this concept of forced sharing. I gotta say, if you hate it so much, keep yr kids home. You won't hear me complaining about the taxes I am forced to share with the school district in spite of the fact that I have chosen to not participate. We LIVE in a society. We all benefit from its resources, and those resources include the other people in our communities. If you can't bear the thought of your child going to school and sharing his or her crayons, honey, I dunno what to tell you! At any rate, my response to the idea that "social engineering" was overtaking our schools was this:
That would be an interesting thing to discuss, but it does not have anything to do with the redistribution of legos that were already assumed to be a shared resource. I am curious how you think this experiment, and the exploration into how power and resources are shared, is equivalent to social engineering, and yet the very world we live in and are shaped by is not.In fact, I think that's an interesting thing to think about. Do we all just assume that the way we live and the society we are shaped by is natural? And therefore any attempt to question and/or reorganize the order of things is somehow unnatural, or "engineered?"
And then I decided to explore further, and read a discussion about a reaction to the article (there is very little actual reading of the article in any of this. Mostly, people were just responding to the slanted reactions to the article, which led many to believe that the teachers noted that students were not behaving appropriately and therefore they simply yanked the legos away in a reactive manner, rather than the actual reality that the teachers got together and planned a very sophisticated lesson surrounding the removal and subsequent reestablishment of lego privileges, which encouraged the children to examine the issues of ownership, power, inclusion, and equity.
Boy, do I ever NOT have my finger on the pulse of America. What I read on this board shocked me. People are actually decrying the lesson these teachers were attempting to teach, and basically saying "children will be children" and therefore should not be encouraged to examine the power dynamics that come into play when groups of children exclude other children. In fact, I imagine that many of the people on that board believe that it's probably preferable that children learn to grab what is theres without considering how their unearned privilege influences their "rights" of ownership.
While I realize there are many within the public school system who are trying desperately to counteract this idea that the distribution of wealth and resources in this country is somehow equitable and meritocratic, I am frankly somewhat appalled by the response to this article by people who are allegedly parents of children. Are there really that many people who are so opposed to their children learning that perhaps our system is less equitable than those in positions of privilege would lead you to believe that they need to demonize an earnest attempt to point out the inherent inequities of our system and work with children to combat those inequities in the classroom?
Obviously I am in total support of any curriculum which moves our children towards examining "rights" that are essentially extensions of unearned privilege. I am concerned, however, that this is such a controversial thing to stand for. If we can't even address these issues with something so benign as Legos without a firestorm of opposition, how on earth do we address global poverty, hunger, and health care crises?
Revolution Barack?
February 24, 2007
Took the kids on a little bus trip today down to auditorium shores in lovely Austin Texas to see if all this fuss about Mr. Obama has any basis in reality.
I should preface this entire post by saying that I am jaded by pretty much all politicians. I don't believe anything any of them say and I'm not liable to vote for anyone who will have the remotest chance of winning in the presidential election. You can argue with me all you want about how I am "wasting my vote" - I have heard it all before and, frankly, I am not interested in discussing it. That said, it was somewhat painful to be standing in line with diehard Obama supporters who were talking to me and my children as if my allegiance to Obama was something to be taken for granted. It is not. While I think Obama is significantly more palatable than just about any presidential hopeful (who has any hope) I have seen in my voting lifetime, he is still a freaking politician and I am still freaking wary of politicians. I am interested in what the man says and the way he says it. I think he is a genius in the art of oration, actually. I felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear him speak. However, when the cameraman from some news station in Dallas shoved the camera in my face to get me to tell him why I had brought my children out (he actually asked if they were my brothers! hahahaha! I guess that's how he gets people to loosen up and talk to him.) I really could not muster any pep rally levels of enthusiasm for him. I said we were here because we homeschool and this is history in the making, to which Monk wisecracked (good fucking lord that child!) "The making of movies is always boring, so I am assuming this making of history is also going to be pretty boring." I am sure we looked like ennui-stricken ugly americans, which is why the guy was totally salivating over us. He was probably from Fox, and we are probably now the poster children for the anti-obama campaign.
At any rate, I found a nice spot for the children to play, and they found a ratty old tennis ball someone had left behind and an impromptu game of soccer broke out. I narrowly averted one of coley's all-day temper tantrums by allowing him to make videos with my camera, and I barely was able to endure the AWFUL AWFUL GOD DAMN so fucking awful opening band that almost had me packing up to go home they were so bad. So so fucking bad. But I toughed it out and the next band (one of the neville brothers? I didn't catch who it was exactly) was much much more pleasing to the ear and then came some woman who I just don't know who she was or why she was introducing Mr. Obama (or should I be saying senator obama? I guess I should be. Or "Our Future President" Obama is probably preferable) and then I moved the kids forward to see if MAYBE we could catch a glimpse of this man everyone is raving about.
A glimpse was about all I caught visually, but I have to say Obama gave a really impressive speech. He was humble, yet his presence (even disembodied) was commanding. I did not disagree with anything he said, and I was impressed on several levels with the words he chose to communicate his points. Does anyone know if he writes his own speeches? I know it's not common, but the words he spoke seemed so his own, it is hard to imagine that he has a speechwriter. And damn it feels so slimy to have to even wonder if a potential president writes his own platform speeches! But anyway...yeah. All of his points were good. He had all of the what's and why's in place...but none of the HOW & damnit, I want to know HOW. I understand that's probably not something that needs to be fleshed out at this time, but wouldn't it be nice if it was?
At any rate, yeah. He's an impressive man and it was a freaking huge crowd. I am not good at estimating crowd size at all, but the only other presidential rally I have ever been to was Howard Dean's 2004 Rally here in Austin and everyone thought that crowd was impressive. This crowd was easily 5-10 times that size. If nothing else, it was nice to look around and see that many people who Give A Fuck, you know? (I just looked at the website, and it said 20k! Twenty thousand people! My, that IS impressive.)
And I am downplaying my appreciation of Obama. When we got home from the rally (after much ballyhoo and bellyaching from the peanut gallery about all of the walking their evil mother was forcing them to do) I got the texts that my friend Sam had sent after my phone battery died. I asked him what he thought of it all. He said he came away a lot more impressed than he thought he would...as he was expecting the same old politician song and dance. I felt likewise, and added that (as I stated above) I just can't get over the fact that he is a politician and therefore his sincerity is suspect. Like I said to Pansy, he really SEEMED humble and committed and sincere.
Who knows? I am glad I went, and I am happy I brought the kids along. I think (I HOPE) they will thank me for it later, even though the spent almost the entire time rolling around in the dirt and/or whining about having to walk. I am no less jaded about politicians than I was before I went, but I am a little more motivated to participate in the process.
A different kind of blue hair vote
November 8, 2006
Likely 1st socialist senator from Vermont / Polls see 8-term congressman leading Senate race
"What is this doing to my image?" he quipped as he posed for photos with a student whose hair was dyed fluorescent blue. "I'll definitely win the entire blue hair vote!"
unbefuckinglievable.
September 29, 2006
Co-chair of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus...exploits children.
Saying he was "deeply sorry," Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.
Sorry isn't the only thing he is...deeply or otherwise.
I do not think I want to see the full report of that.
Chavez, Venezuela, Chomsky, and the Devil
September 24, 2006
Yes, I know this is a bit late, and you have probably all heard about this already...
The event:
&, you know...I don't care what Jon Stewart says...I think Chavez made his point in an intelligent and humorous manner. I don't think he is batshit crazy. I think he knows exactly what he is doing & while he is still a world leader and therefore most likely not motivated entirely by good, he is still doing good things by speaking out - Certainly not without considerable risk to himself.
The almost instantaneous backlash:
Venezuelan official detained at U.S. airport
Maduro said authorities at one point ordered him and other officials to spread their arms and legs and be frisked, but he said they forcefully refused. He said officers also threatened to handcuff him."We responded with the dignity of Venezuelan revolutionaries ... with strength," Maduro told reporters at Venezuela's mission to the U.N. "It's a Nazi government, a racist government."
If this is how U.S. authorities treat a foreign minister, he said, "what won't they do to Arab people for wearing a turban?"
He said his passport and ticket were seized and eventually returned, but the incident prevented him from flying home Saturday.
Best News Headline Ever.
August 13, 2006
ABC News: Israel Approves Truce, Continues Barrage
It really couldn't do more to explain the absolute ridiculousness of everything in the entire fucking world.
The McLaughlin Group.
August 13, 2006
Every week I tune into the McLaughlin Group discussion, and almost every week, Pat Buchanan surprises me by saying something reasonable.
This week, the discussion was about Bush's use of the term Islamofascism to describe the foiled UK bombings. Buchanan piped up and stated that the use of that term, and the lumping of Syria, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda all together under that term is responsible for our inability to form any sort of worthwhile intelligence in dealing with these very different, nuanced groups. I almost choked. WTF?
Even more wonderful about this show, however, is Eleanor Clift and her consistent persistence in opposing the war in Iraq. She kicks so much ass. I love you, Eleanor!!!
(by the way, Lieberman is a total boob. And not in a good way.)
Mr. Danger!
March 21, 2006
Chavez Blasts Bush as "Donkey" and "Drunkard"
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday lobbed a litany of insults at U.S. President George W. Bush ranging from "donkey" to "drunkard" in response to a White House report branding the left-wing leader a demagogue.
Chavez is one of Bush's fiercest critics and has repeatedly accused the U.S. government of seeking to oust him from the presidency of Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter and a supplier of around 15 percent of U.S. crude imports.
"You are a donkey, Mr. Bush," said Chavez, speaking in English on his weekly Sunday broadcast.
"You're an alcoholic Mr. Danger, or rather, you're a drunkard," Chavez said, referring to Bush by a nickname he frequently uses to describe the U.S. president.
In my post-DMBQ mindset, this kind of makes me laugh. It's like Chavez is doing politics the way he interprets the U.S. does politics, only totally exaggerated. You know? Like this is the political equivalent of smashing your drum set with a rock.
One can only hope this reflects badly on the republicans...
March 8, 2006
"I have always placed my faith in the voters, and today's vote shows they have placed their full faith in me," Mr. DeLay said in proclaiming victory.
EARTH TO TEXANS...Geez, I don't even know what to say after that...how about "GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES!!!" Does that work?
[link via P6]
Thoughts on the weekend...history, social issues, and my mental/emotional state.
February 19, 2006
I spent the weekend at the Historians Against the War convention at UT, which was kicked of ceremoniously with a brilliant keynote one-two of Andrea Smith and Howard Zinn. I thought both of them gave compelling presentations, and I jotted down copious notes in spite of having to deal with really cramped quarters. At some point, I will share my notes from that keynote and from the rest of the event, but I think I really just want to write about my experience of the event in general.
First of all, DAMN, people are impatient. Including myself. The first person who approached the mic for Q&A rambled on a bit about the lovely performance activism she is doing, and within a minute, the audience was telling her to get to the point, in a not very nice way. I felt myself feeling the same way - and it happened multiple times throughout the weekend. By the 3rd or 4th time I really began to grow uncomfortable with the whole method of mob silencing that was happening & I was pleased when some with louder voices would counteract the "Shut up and ask a question" crowd. I wondered, too, why I wasn't the person counteracting, considering I was one person feeling uncomfortable with it. So, one lesson learned at the history conference was that I need to find my voice and use it.
The panels and the speakers throughout the event were informative, intelligent, and remarkable. I did kind of wish there was a way to include dissenting voices among the crowd to get a richer discussion, but in my heart of hearts I knew a) that wasn't really the point of the conference and b) it is rare for that kind of dialog to take place in a non-threatening way - particularly when there are elements of the crowd who find it necessary to silence even the voices of agreement.
At lunchtime, I situated myself in the far corner of the room to avoid all human contact. I guess I'm in that kind of mood lately. I dunno. I sat eating and pretending to write in my journal, but really I was observing everyone. Mr. Zinn was sitting two tables away, facing me...so I laughed to myself about the fact that I was practically eating lunch with one of the greatest historians of our time. I thought about maybe going back to school to study history. And then two nice boys joined me and we talked briefly about last night's speech and education and whatnot. It was a nice, pleasant conversation & allowed me to feel good about the fact that I didn't avoid human contact altogether, in spite of my best efforts to the contrary. Ha!
I was exhausted when I arrived home Saturday night, but I went out to dinner with J anyway. We went to Swad and it was pleasant, but there was dis/ease. I get the feeling it is painful for him to hang out with me, and that painfulness is maybe exacerbated by the fact that it's NOT painful for me. Or maybe he's just in pain in general. I don't know/can't claim that it has anything to do with me at all, but the dosa and chole bhatura and sev potato puri was fabulous, and it was nice to see J as he has been ill for a bit. He even helped me to fix a computer problem I have been having. I couldn't find the R. Kelly videos I told him I was going to make him watch with me, which was kind of a bummer, and he left early in the evening...which was probably good because I was so tired & sort of overwhelmed with being around people.
I was invited to a party, which had been making me nervous all week. The person who invited me is someone who I really enjoy hanging around, and actually would love to go to a party with at some point, because he always makes me feel at ease...but I just have not been feeling the whole "large crowd" thing lately & I was balking. So there was this dynamic of me feeling torn that I wasn't going to get to see my friend, but fairly certain that I would have a crappy time going to a party that was making me feel extra-super wishy washy about giving a definitive answer. I did SAY no to the party several times, but I'm fortunate that my friend is pretty sensitive about how I'm feeling, so even though he heard no, I think he sensed my feelings of hesitation and kept asking (because normally he accepts my boundaries pretty readily, actually, which is why he's so very very dear to me) - but the thing is that in addition to the original party, he was now going to be attending a fucking FRAT party, and all of the reasons for me not wanting to go were suddenly increased 5 million fold & not only that...suddenly the very idea was making me feel upset and agitated. I told my friend I was just going to go to bed, but when I laid down to sleep, I started feeling really upset about the whole party/meat market atmosphere.
I dunno...it started to really get to me that what I look like - and what others look like to me - dictates to such a great extent whether or not we ever really get to know them on a deeper level, whether we are even talking about a relationship level or not. Plus, it made me feel all shaky and weepy to think that going to a party is an exercise in dressing myself up to be judged and evaluated and deemed worthy/unworthy by random strangers in a room. blah! I'm not quite sure what actually precipitated all of this. I can't really say it has anything to do with hanging around in a room full of history nerds all day. And it's not even that I don't feel like I "measure up" or whatever...it's just the very act of feeling like other people are measuring me...in mass quantities...that started to ook me out a bit. Maybe, too, you know...I'm 36 years old! I guess to a certain extent I feel like my friend is inviting his mom out to a party with him, which seems kind of silly.
At any rate, I was able to express these feeling abruptly to my friend and get them out enough to where I was able to actually fall asleep, but it's still bothering me today that I felt so weird about it. Part of me feels totally justified in feeling that way, and part of me is like "Whatever, lady - it's just another background for whatever you experience...why get all bent out of shape." And I wonder if I would have refused to go last month or if I will refuse to go next month or the month after that. I spent much of the day today trying to figure out when I have last been to a party - like a house party of someone I don't know - and I just can't remember. And then I started trying to remember when I have ever actually met anyone worth knowing at a party, and I can't remember that, either...so I don't feel so bad. But, then, I do recall having been to some parties with friends and just enjoying the experience...so maybe that's the key. But, I guess going to a party with a male friend who is scouting for a relationship is probably what was making me feel like it wouldn't be such a good idea.
I dunno. I've already spent way more energy on this than it probably deserves, but I'm just sort of interested in why being asked to a party evoked such a strong, reactive emotional response in me. So I'll probably think about it more, but if anyone out there has any thoughts about that, I'd love to hear them.
Today I woke up late, but managed to only miss the one speaker in the whole event who made me feel impatient and irritated. There were only about 5 people on the 3-hour panel this morning, so there was lots of time for discussion in the end, and I really enjoyed hearing from all of the regular people in the room. One woman mentioned that the closest she has ever been to going to university was attending university conferences & I wanted to stand up and applaud her as she mentioned that it might be good for the panelists to consider that there are lots of people who don't have degress who could benefit from what they are saying. Then the ever-present Carl Webb made the important point that we need to bring this stuff off-campus and share information and solidarity with those who don't ever set foot on campus. I requested more resources for younger children, which is something I'm probably going to write about later, as so much of the historical research and documentation is geared towards high school and up - and even in our very good library, there are still tons and tons of books that teach the kind of history that I have to go back later and say "Oh, by the way, everything in this book is either wrong or told from a perspective that invalidates what really happened."
And now I am home. And it is fucking cold out there. And I have a million bajillion things to do, but I just want to curl up in a little ball under all of my covers and think through all of the events of the week - both educational and emotional - and breathe, and listen to music, and think, and allow myself to feel all of it, and work through all of it, and come out on the other side with some ideas about how to deal with it all.
But first I need to make myself a fucking sandwich, because I am HUNGRY!!!!!!!!
This? Not so much do I love.
February 15, 2006
John Ashcroft Spreads His Wings
"While Ashcroft's lobbying is within government rules for former officials," the Chicago Tribune noted, "it is nonetheless a departure from the practice of attorneys general for at least the last 30 years."Other former AGs have "counseled corporate clients or perhaps even lobbied in a specific case as part of law firm business, [but] Ashcroft is the first in recent memory to open a lobbying firm."
Attorneys general have tended to avoid the role of "a hired gun selling his connections", Charles Tiefer, a former deputy general counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives and author of "Veering Right, How the Bush Administration Subverts the Law for Conservative Causes", pointed out.
I love this!
February 15, 2006
Thinkers and performers can never stop wars or start peace.
January 12, 2006
"Thinkers and performers can never stop wars or start peace
Although they'd like to
Care for the wounded never halted any battle
And artistry just collects the fragments into manageable chaos" -Flux
Sitting and attempting a conversation about politics last night was painful. Really, all of the political issues of our time boil down to the same issue with the same solution. The issue is the mishandling or overconcentration of power in the hands of the privileged, and the solution is revolution. Whether that revolution is one of a peaceful and gradual collective reawakening or violent uprising I don't know. Either way, I feel hopeless to truly enact change other than by creating a microcosm of what the world should be in my own life. And then the frustration is compounded because I'm on the fucking rag, and creating a microcosm of what the world should be like while I'm sitting here alternating between feeling all angry with and brokenhearted about the world feels totally impossible. Ha!
Listening to the Alito hearings yesterday, it actually started to sound like people were just saying "Blah!" in varying intensities and with barely discernable inflections. "Blah blah blah...blah blah blahblahblah." Etc.
I'm truly intrigued by Stiglitz' findings on the true cost of war, but at the same time, I'm like "Duh! You mean no one has ever before thought about the long-term costs of war, both economically and spiritually?" If that's the case, we are more fucked than we even seem!
This article about the privatization of prisons (think about that for a minute, will you...we have a FUCKING prison INDUSTRY! That's as bad as having a HEALTHCARE industry. What the FUCK? You don't need a PhfuckingD in econfuckingnomics to see the ridiculousness in applying the same growth standards to sickness and crime that you do to fucking selling xboxes and candy fucking bars! What is WRONG with us?) that I'm reading in an old issue of Z Magazine makes me feel the same way:
Since incarceration rates are especially high among those with the least power in the labor market--young and unskilled minority, particularly African American, men--mass U.S. imprisonment and felony marking tends to exacerbates racial inequality. Thanks to its racially disparate labor market and related (under-) developmental consequences, the prison industrial complex has become a significant form of racially regressive and highly regulatory state intervention in the U.S. labor market and economy. Sociologists Bruce Western and Katherine Beckett find that "the penal system has a pervasive influence on the life chances of disadvantaged minorities. "Although typically the preserve of criminology," Western observes, "incarceration appears to shape aspects of inequality that are of traditional interest to stratification researchers. It seems likely that status attainment, school-to-work transitions, and family structure are all influenced, perhaps even routinely, by the penal system in the current period of high incarceration. From this perspective, the usual list of institutional influences on social stratification--schools, families, and social policy--should be expanded to consider the coercive redistribution of life chances through incarceration."It doesn't help, of course, that inmate education and rehabilitation have been systematically de-legitimized and de-funded at the same time that the U.S. has built and operated a record number of new prisons in a spirit of what leading national prisoner "reentry" expert Jeremy Travis calls "robust retributivism."
I also really appreciate what Street says about the social/spiritual costs of prisons here:
Prison-hosting carries significant non-economic costs that deserve to be "factored-in" alongside material "dollars and cents" considerations. Beyond the often dangerous and stressful nature of correctional work, it seems likely that many people employed in prisons pay a certain spiritual price for relying for their daily bread on the dehumanizing imposition of mass incarceration. At the same time, the highly racialized nature of the U.S.'s increasingly bucolic "prison nation" certainly has a negative impact on the country's race relations. In the typical "downstate" Illinois or "upstate" New York (or Michigan) prison, the only black Americans that many of the predominantly white guards and other prison staff tend to have contact with are the angriest, most violent and dangerous products of the nation's urban ghettos. Along with the stress and negativity associated with the work of imposing repressive, explicitly "retributivist" state punishment on those mostly male and very disparately poor black Americans, this selective exposure to the black community certainly tends to reinforce and expand racist sentiments in rural white America. Meanwhile, captive nonwhite prisoners chafe, their bitterness and alienation often growing under the constant oppressive eyes, batons, mace-cans, electronic tasers, cameras, and guns of their Caucasian overseers. The U.S. prison system's rejection of its initially rehabilitative mission only deepens the disaffection of currently and formerly incarcerated "offenders." This is a formula for the exacerbation of racial hatred. It is very different from placing blacks and whites alongside each other in situations requiring roughly equal interdependence, as for example in the deep coal mines that used to be more common in southern Illinois and much of the South.
There has been a lot of discussion around here lately about Christianity and why Christians are so fucked. I dislike placing the blame on Christians exclusively, but I think in general, religion is dangerous because it pulls spirituality out of the day to day happenings in the world and places them in one building or one document or maybe a body of documents. Sure there are religions, even some Christian congregations, that preach social justice...but in general, I am concerned about the externalization of spirituality. I'm concerned that it causes this problem where we don't think about the long-term effects of our short-sighted actions. I'm concerned that it only enables those in power to continue to mishandle their privilege without fear of retribution in this lifetime. I'm concerned that it makes people apathetic about their own power to organize and/or at least transcend.
And I cling desperately to my last two beliefs
Firstly, I believe nothing and in nothing
Secondly, I believe in everything and in everything
Together I attempt to navigate my way
All around me refuse to change But not the world
Every expression of my love Seems to wound
Martyrdom offers nothing
I love this world and my life upon it
I grasp the hand of happiness whenever it is offered
More not than often, These distorted visions Represented ideas
Having lost their tongues, They no longer speak to me
-Flux
flux: uncarved block [1986]
youthful immortal
I've only just experienced
How beliefs can turn cold
Persuading me to retire
Before I'm old
Reaching out for comfort
Trying to embrace
Come out of hiding
Show your face
Emerging from a long dark tunnel
To be blinded by the bright light
Love can be so easily distorted
When for survival forced to fight
Grasping for the commitment
That I once possessed
Remembering past days
Of positiveness
My dream still exists
Because I want it to
Although I still believe
I'm not sure what to do
I've always believed that love
Will one day win through
Like opening a huge window
Knowing that beyond it lies
a beautiful view
Love's provided me with inspiration
When in the depths of despair
Like a diver struggling to the surface
Gasping desperately for air
Having overcome desperation
I feel so much more alive
Despite continued frustrations
I know I'll survive
children who know
Thinkers and performers can never stop wars or start peace
Although they'd like to
Care for the wounded never halted any battle
And artistry just collects the fragments into manageable chaos
Allegiances are fickle thin, And in essence pervay Little but our futility
Positivity becomes negative Once it has lost it's charge
The little good that we once had, Still is
But on the whole, The bad remains
I once thought you had to be on your own To be lonely
Same children playing revolution in the park
Same old ideas stumbling about in the dark
Same two sticks together create a spark
Same people standing alone, naked and stark
And I cling desperately to my last two beliefs
Firstly, I believe nothing and in nothing
Secondly, I believe in everything and in everything
Together I attempt to navigate my way
All around me refuse to change But not the world
Every expression of my love Seems to wound
Martyrdom offers nothing
I love this world and my life upon it
I grasp the hand of happiness whenever it is offered
More not than often, These distorted visions Represented ideas
Having lost their tongues, They no longer speak to me
Same prisoner locked up in his cell
Institutions creating the hell
Mindfuckers manipulating hard sell
Same people forced to rebel
Same deaths caused by poverty
Animals trapped in captivity
Consciences appeased with charity
Same people striving for dignity
Same workers sweating down the pit
Same exploiters reaping in the profit
Same laws defining the crimes we commit
Same people fighting, refusing to submit
Nature knows no divisions
One field runs into the next
Having erected fences
I am imprisoned inside my head
The dumb clock chimed
But it was too late
I hear your voice
It cries in the silence
Same bigotry breaking into war
Idiots saying "heard it all before"
Ears hear, yet they still ignore
Same people trying to unlock the door
Same voices of impending doom
Vision of impenetrable gloom
Same foetus, same womb
Same people nurture bud into bloom
Footprints in the Snow
Clawing desperately for something new
Thoughts, like animals trapped in a zoo
Acknowledge that no amount of rage
Will ever remove the bars from the cage
My eyes are swollen and red
My head is numb and sore
Tired and emotionally dead
I don't feel angry anymore
Walk in the sun, walk in the snow
Thinking fast, thinking slow
My ideas come
My ideas go
Increasing waves tumble onto the shore
Ever increasing desires still want more
In a far off field another farmer sows his crop
In a far off field another bomb is dropped
Above my head the seagulls soar
Above my head the bombers roar
Another bird prepares to fly
Another soldier prepares to die
Leaves falling in the autumn
Soldiers dying in the war
In spring the flowers blossom
But all year the battles roar
My head is still sore
Soldiers still fight war
From little streams great rivers flow
From simple thoughts great ideas grow
The Stonecutter
Trapped in endless tunnels
Feeling the space outside
Gasping in the stale air
Is this spring, I thought
Caught at the centre of nothing
Trying to unfurl my wings
Standing where the noise doesn't carry
Hiding in my world they cannot see
Red obvious water
Black happy light
Blue confused fire
White angry darkness
Acting on the desires
I once talked about
I slept with god, but discovered
You cannot rescue whom you follow
The truth cutting and clear
Language it breaks
Tolling bell, marking time
Inside out, asylum cell
Turn about, dumb mime
Leaves fall, in war
Leaves fall, in war
Words ring on empty air
Sand running through fingers
Like a mute struggling to talk
Sign posts point in every direction
Delusion you continue to insist
Desperate to contain my rainbow
A new born child sheds tears
An angel drums in my head
Sailors having braved violent storms
No longer enjoy the tranquil calm
Up - trees aware of roots still grow
Down - buckets transform holes into wells
One pie or many smaller slices
Whole greater than sum of its parts
Thirty pieces of silver are not enough
Follow directions and you end up lost
Looking into mirrors, denying my reflection
While the ripples on the pond radiate out further
Refusals or demands, there is a difference
So many words we did not say
Information overload, disconnection, and the state of our country
January 3, 2006
I'm reading this extremely information-heavy (and also bitingly hilarious) post at Jesus' General, and I'm freaking out a bit about my relative apathy towards political processes of late. I mean, if I find it difficult to keep up, considering how invested I personally feel in politics, they've already fucking won. Because someone who starts off feeling even more disenfranchised than me would not even know where to begin, nor is there any reason for them to find out.
I basically stopped listening to the whole Alito thing. I think I've been faking interest in judicial nominiations from the very beginning. I feel like whatever is going to happen is going to happen, and yet the more I read, the more these people seem really fucking out there in a very scary dictatorial way, and I am scared out of my fucking wits about it. I'm scared...into apathy? Is that what it is? I don't have time to keep up unless I invest all of my energy into it...and if I invest all of my energy into it, I have no time to enjoy the freedom that I am fighting for. That's the Hell of pseudo-fascism, I guess. And I suppose that's why Jesus' General works so hard to at least make it entertaining to read (and, I imagine, to write) this stuff.
Yesterday, I was talking to a friend about my post about the gay and lesbian campus organizations. I could barely keep my facts straight about that, and I had just read the information earlier in the day. He asked what we might be able to do about it, and I honestly had no idea. Petitions are nice, but they seem to only provide papercuts on the slow ride to political hell.
Lately, when I'm asked to explain my political position about anything, I feel dizzy and nauseated. I'm tempted to just spit "Legalize everything and kill everyone" as a means of avoiding specificity. I WANT to be informed. I work hard to stay on top of things...but it's a moving fucking target & once I educate myself on a topic, I'm forced to move on to the next.
Gah. I know it's important, but I can't understand why I have such a huge block about specific political events these days. Maybe I should just go with the flow and not worry about it so much. I'm sure it will all come back to me. It's just, I guess, that I feel so satisfied with my life that I think it's time for me to stop focusing inward and start raising some Hell outside of myself.
I guess we'll see. Ebb and flow, baby. Ebb and motherfucking flow.
Mainstreaming Michael Moore
November 21, 2005
Egalia nails it with this post.
If the White House is to be believed, the majority of Americans are now in the "extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party." Heh.As usual, the White House responds to criticism with mafia-like efforts to swiftboat the messenger. In the latest battle, the Bushies hoped to discredit former Marine colonel, Rep. John Murtha by charging that he is in the Michael Moore camp.
Listening to the PBS news shows today had me absolutely flabbergasted. I couldn't believe Scott McClellan actually attempted to discredit a senator who was formerly in the military by saying he was a kooky michael moore follower. WTF? What can they do next to freak me right the fuck out? I don't think I even want to know.
Exit Strategy, Indeed.
November 20, 2005
[for background, go here]
Who's doing the "finger pointing" and "blame gaming" now?
September 28, 2005
ararrrarrrrhghghghghaghgh;aghghaghet iwetashef!!!!!
Sorry, that was the sound of my head exploding AGAIN due to the rampant hypocrisy of anyone associated with George Bush.
NPR : Ex-FEMA Director Defends Agency's Response
He's ACTUALLY FUCKING POINTING HIS FINGER!
I would laugh except, you know, my vocal cords sorta went with the whole exploding head thing.
Intelligent leaders
September 14, 2005
I've been reading the transcript of the Second Day of Hearings on the Nomination of Judge Roberts that Jessica at Feministing linked to, and all I can think about is that, whether I agree with them or not, our senators are pretty intelligent people. Can you imagine George Bush asking any of these questions with the kind of foresight, hindsight, and insight that the senators are employing? I can't. Why is that? Is it that the presidency is a figure head role?
I guess I was never a huge fan of President Clinton, either...but I can at least sort of envision him asking some of these questions. Hell, even Bush's dad seemed remarkably intelligent (in a diabolical, weasely sort of way, but still...) Reagan, not so much. Carter, yes!
So, what gives? Why is it that we end up with presidents who couldn't articulate their way out of a paper freaking bag? Just reading over some of these questions and answers, I'm willing to nominate Arlen Specter for president, if only because he has a reasonably good vocabulary, and he made a crack about "super duper presedence."
Visualize World Peace
August 3, 2005
Frog March July 4th Fantasy - News From Babylon
[link via my dear friend r@d@r]
Talk about being "out of one's league"
May 25, 2005
The difference between Limbaugh and Moyers is as profound as the difference between FOX and PBS. One man plays by the "rules of the game," the other sticks to principle. One man defends a corrupt status quo, the other seeks to expose it. One is a master propagandist, the other wants to break the stranglehold of "The Big Lie." One fears the damage done by the practice of journalism, the other knows that great journalism is the essential element in the making of great nations. One is a Tory who serves his King George, the other is a rebel against the throne.
I can't believe Limbaugh even thinks he has the credibility to launch any criticism of Mr. Moyers.
I REALLY hate to say "I told you so"
May 24, 2005
But recaps like this where it's evident that the democrats are not willing to fight for our rights and risk alienating...um...their right wing constituents (?) are why I disowned the so-called "democratic" party in the first place.
Yes, there is value in compromise...however, there's compromise and then there's being compromised.
Having Said that...
February 22, 2005
...I will now totally contradict what I just said.
(isn't our president a master of the english language? I'm definitely going to remember and use this one! How powerful it is! "No, I'm not planning on attacking you. That's RIDICULOUS! How dare you even THINK that...
...having said that...maybe I WILL and maybe I WON'T. Really, it's none of your business, anyway.)
Genius!
And, speaking of domestic violence
January 26, 2005
Shameless Agitator linked up this article which exposes inherent flaws in anti-gay marriage laws. Of course, beyond the obvious flaw of, like, it's not ok for the state to sponsor hatred and bigotry:
Backers of Issue 1 relied on religious fervor and anti-homosexual sentiment to get the measure into the state constitution. Now everyone, gay and straight, is going to have to pay the price.
Let them eat insufficient body armor!
January 16, 2005
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Ring of steel as Bush sworn in
Democrats have criticised the $40m celebrations as a tasteless display of excess, saying tradition dictates that wartime inaugurations are restrained affairs. The Republicans' response has been that the whole event is dedicated to US soldiers serving abroad.The inauguration has been officially subtitled "Celebrating Freedom and Honouring Service". The party also pointed out that the bill would be paid entirely by private contributions.
Yeah, but those same "private contributions" could be used to pay our soldiers a living wage. At the very least.
[link via living on less]
How to Save the World
January 5, 2005
Thanks to George for sharing with me How to Save the World
But their wealth depends on our acquiescence to a brutal, monopolistic and anti-democratic economic system that imposes wage slavery on everyone and crushes all alternative economic ideas under the guise of advancing globalization, 'free' trade, efficiency and 'free' markets. We are so beaten down by this neocon economic machine that most of us now believe we could not make ends meet running our own business. So we perpetuate this horrendous economic system by buying the crappy, overpriced junk made by slave labour that they churn out.
This Morning's Primal Scream Therapy Courtesy of GW Bush
December 31, 2004
I don't know why anyone would argue his status as person of the year when he performs such amazing feats as cutting funding to the NSF to reduce the deficit.
Still, you say, don't we face a huge deficit now? Indeed we do, but cutting support for scientific research is an incredibly mindless way to solve that problem. Deficits are bad because they represent a form of borrowing against the future. Every dollar we spend beyond our means today is one less dollar that we'll have to spend someday down the road. But scientific research is an investment in future prosperity. Cutting the NSF budget is like a family in debt pulling its children out of college but keeping its country club membership.
I mean, come on folks! Science only gets in the way of progress.
And then, there's this.
December 24, 2004
TomPaine.com - Sell Out Or Sell Off?
Oh, and guess who's also encouraging the watering-down of the Democrats' full-throated defense of a woman's right to control her own body? Why, that noble Democrat of principle John Kerry--the L.A. Times tells us that, "after his election loss, the Massachusetts senator concluded that the party needed to rethink its stance. Addressing supporters at a meeting held by the AFL-CIO, Kerry said he discovered during trips through Pennsylvania that many union members were also abortion opponents and that the party needed to rethink how it could appeal to those voters, Kerry spokesman David Wade said." (Another flip-flop--a sure sign that he's thinking of running again.)
This could be the most important thing I've read all year.
December 24, 2004
The Left must get much better, not just at placing its issues in a compelling moral frame, but at exposing and holding the radical Right accountable for its lies and deception — without, and here is the tricky part, making those who have been manipulated feel ridiculed and put down.
She goes on to talk about how we should not try to frame our issues around the inherently heirarchical parent-child relationship, but rather around interdependence and community.
How lovely! And inspiring!
Medea Benjamin gets it.
December 15, 2004
MANY OF US IN THE GREEN PARTY made a tremendous compromise by campaigning in swing states for such a miserable standard-bearer for the progressive movement as John Kerry. Well, I've had it. As George Bush says, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me--you can't get fooled again."
[link courtesy of Zagg]
The more I think about it...
November 18, 2004
The more I resent this comment on the aforementioned post on Daily Kos:
First, there's even less of an organized Left today than there was in the 1920s and 1930s. By "organized Left" I mean Communists, Socialists, anyone who openly critiques the underlying assumptions of capitalism. It is virtually non-existent now, so when the collapse comes very, very few people will be prepared to understand the disaster from a radical point of view.
Hello? Yes, we ARE here. We're the ones the so-called left who call themselves "The Democratic Party" denigrated and disenfranchised in order to convince the rest of the world they had a decent chance at the presidency. We're the ones who were silenced. We're the ones who are an embarrassment to the party. We're the ones who are shrill and harsh.
Perhaps if the Left-wing of the republican party (e.g. the kerry fucking democrats) would spend less time trying to bash the real left, there WOULD be a socialist/anti-capitalist left to speak of.
Damnit!
Right on, Sister.
November 17, 2004
Living on Less: To Hell with the Government
Sure, as long as the government exists, it should be called to task for not providing for people's basic needs, which is its most elemental function. So, yeah, it's worthwhile to demand that the government provide universal access to health care, for instance, but, strangely enough, no one is actually doing that. So, whatever, keep writing letters to your government representatives and then hold your breath. Hope you don't choke to death while you're waiting....In the meantime, the only route to social change is grassroots action. What the guvmet is not doing, we have to do: build alternative institutions like progressive schools, community centers where people can find each other and share ideas, free food pantries and kitchens, skill exchanges, whatever. It's not happening, though, because people are focusing on other things; pointless things like trying to petition the gubmint to do the right thing, which it will never ever do.
Doing His Job
November 12, 2004
Yahoo! News - Nader calls for US election recounts
[link courtesy of mquest]
Wow.
November 11, 2004
I'd like to hear all of these Voting Irregularities explained. On NPR today (or maybe it was yesterday) one of the reporters was very curtly dismissing all surmising about voter fraud as being "conspiracy theory" and utterly unfounded...but I'