All our lives, we rework the things from our childhood, like feeling good about ourselves, managing our angry feelings, and being able to say good-bye to the people we love.I never liked Mr. Rogers as a child--though I have always liked cardigans--but I have new found appreciation for him.
It's now clear how the Bush administration sees things: Canadian sovereignty exists only at its pleasure. If we do what Washington wants, we retain our sovereignty. If we don't, all bets are off.McQuaig makes the comparison "it's only rape if you resist, and really the logic is that stunning. Sovereignty here is that thing you get when you agree with the United States. I'm really hating my country today.
This is what U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci clarified last week in his angered response to Paul Martin's announcement that Canada won't join the U.S. missile defence scheme. Cellucci noted that Washington would simply deploy its anti-missile system over Canadian airspace anyway, and expressed puzzlement over Canada's decision to "in effect, give up its sovereignty."
No doubt the Soviets felt similar puzzlement as they rolled into Czechoslovakia in 1968. What's with these crazy Czechs? Don't they get it? All they have to do is co-operate with Moscow and they can retain their "sovereignty."
The 150-page Beijing declaration called for governments to end gender discrimination in areas including education, health care, politics and employment.My cursory search fails to reveal any other news on the topic, so I'm not entirely clear just how exactly the US is being obstructionist beyond the info in the BBC story. Regardless, it's nice to know we live in a country garnering an increasing reputation for throwing Puritanical spanners in the international accord works.
It stated that women have the right to "decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality... free of coercion, discrimination and violence."
But attempts at the time to refer to abortion as a sexual right were dropped amid heated debate, and instead it was treated as a public health issue.
However, the Beijing conference's action plan did call for governments not to punish women who have undergone illegal abortions.
The judges backed the lower court decision to dismiss the fraud and theft claims, agreeing with Irons that she didn't steal the sperm.My oh my oh my. More reason not to trust women who won't swallow I suppose. In any case, do be careful boys. And here I used to complain that my ex never gave me anything.
"She asserts that when plaintiff 'delivered' his sperm, it was a gift--an absolute and irrevocable transfer of title to property from a donor to a donee," the decision said. "There was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request."
"They lick the toads and only take in a small amount of the poison - they get a smile on their face and look like they are going to wander off into the sunset."So if you notice your dogs grades are dropping, their friends have changed, or their attitude is different, you should talk to them. Tell them: don't think of the first toad, think of the last toad.
The Pope writes that both abortion and the mass murder of six million Jews came about as a result of people usurping the "law of God" beneath the guise of democracy.Can't he just die already? Bush doesn't get to appoint his successor.
"It was a legally elected parliament which allowed for the election of Hitler in Germany in the 1930s..." he writes.
"We have to question the legal regulations that have been decided in the parliaments of present day democracies. The most direct association which comes to mind is the abortion laws...
"Parliaments which create and promulgate such laws must be aware that they are transgressing their powers and remain in open conflict with the law of God and the law of nature."
I feel sad for leftists because they are stuck in their addiction. Strong wording? I think not, because I was there. Leftist ideology is a powerful and cunning potion, and if it gets into the mind at a young enough age, it can be extremely difficult to kick. Let me explain.Me? I say bring on the strong stuff, and save me a wake up. I guess I'm just in denial.
. . .
There is no way for a "cradle" conservative to imagine the pain that a recovering leftist goes through when the veil is finally lifted. The second step in official 12-step programs is belief in a higher power, believing that your higher power can restore you. In recovering from leftist thinking, this step is not a requirement, but for me it was essential. In fact, during my 30th year I experienced a spiritual awakening that initiated many changes in values, which in turn brought me to my first conservative action step: voting for Ronald Reagan in 1980. To borrow Michael Medved’s term, I had become a "theo-con."
Politically, the dispute has helped the governor, especially with supporters who share his distrust of the newspapers and enjoy seeing them "get poked in the eye," said Matthew Crenson, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.I find it pretty appalling that the court is ruling in favor of an administrative decision to create a blacklist, but hey, I'm sensitive to these things, or so I've been told. You know, when I lived in Maryland, we had a democratic governor, and nothing like this ever, ever happened. I'm just sayin'
Last fall, Ehrlich's office sent an e-mail to 225 government officials, barring them from talking to The Sun's Statehouse bureau chief, David Nitkin, and columnist Michael Olesker.
"No one in the Executive Department or Agencies is to speak with David Nitkin or Michael Olesker until further notice," said the e-mail. "Do not return calls or comply with any requests. The Governor's Press Office feels that currently both are failing to objectively report on any issue dealing with the Ehrlich-Steele Administration. Please relay this information to your respective department heads."
The database provides a complete guide to all the principal groups responsible for organizing the national protests against the war, their leaders, their core agendas and beliefs. . . . While the database cannot account for the motivations and beliefs of all the individuals who participated in these protests or who came in an unorganized fashion to oppose the war, it . . . shows that without exception the agendas of these groups and the individuals who ran them were anti-corporate and socialist (often Marxist-Leninist), rather than pacifists and non-violent or merely liberal, as described in the general media.Anyway, if you're feeling too complacent today, have a look around. Guaranteed to get the blood flowing.
It appears as if our roofing maintenance had some good and bad affects. Most, if not all, of the existing leaks appear to have been stopped but some new ones seem to have sprung up. We have contracted for one prepaid call back, so please report any confirmed leaks as soon as you can.For that matter, it's probably a pretty good operative metaphor for all kinds of things.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed. Those who are cold and are not clothed.So now if the flag burning peaceniks want to come back, their materials must be pre-approved and they can only be presented in "a classroom setting that would allow an opportunity for a 'balanced' presentation." And what exactly does that mean--some Quaker/NRA Jane-you-ignorant-slut smackdown? For god's sake this shit sets my teeth on edge. I'm quite certain the students of Cookeville don't need to worry about an excess of liberal propaganda. Let's make sure they don't have an opportunity to think. They're too young for that.
Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.But in these times, this seems a quite noble mission. Bravo to the UW.
"Do you have a ticket?" one of the big guys asked, unsmilingly.Lindorff calls it a "Leni Riefensthal moment" and I'm inclined to agree.
"No. Where do I get one?" I replied.
"You can't. It's too late." Now there was a smile.
"Where did you get them, before it was too late?" I asked him.
"Senator Santorum," he said, referring to Pennsylvania's junior and extremely right wing senator, Rick Santorum, who is up for re-election next year.
"How would I have known that?" I asked. "I don't recall reading any announcements in the media about how to get tickets for the president's visit."
"I don't know," the young man said. Now the smile had become a smirk.
. . .
"So who are you guys?" I asked them. "You don't look like Secret Service."
"We're from the Republican Party," one of them answered.
As part of the agreement, revealed yesterday after it was secretly signed in January, the Labor Department agreed "to give Wal-Mart 15 days' notice before the Labor Department investigates any other 'wage and hour' accusations, like failure to pay minimum wage or overtime."I don't know about you, but I'm heartened by our Labor Department's attempts to deal cooperatively with organizations like Wal-mart. It's time we tried to end the petty tensions between labor and management and asked "why can't we all just get along?" Wal-mart has been explaining their attitude toward labor for years:
Unions (For U.S. Operations Only)And I'm cheered that our government seems to really be listening. It's time to think beyond that "us and them" attitude and those pesky regulations and just try to love each other.
At Wal-Mart, we respect the individual rights of our associates and encourage them to express their ideas, comments and concerns. Because we believe in maintaining an environment of open communications, we do not believe there is a need for third-party representation.
I remember when I was eight years old, my family and I came to America. We didn't speak English. We didn't know anyone. We had no family or friends nearby. We were fearful of so many things in this new country. What sustained us and gave us hope and encouragement during those difficult times was our church community and the power of faith. The power of faith kept us going. It showed us that we had a chance to survive in this new country, which seemed so just and had such generous and wonderful people. Faith gave us confidence that there could be a better tomorrow.Who needs laws when you've got Jesus?
The new budget guts social spending at a level that is revolutionary. It's a junta. It changes the nation from a republic with any sense of social responsibility to a military power with a subject population from which to draw. No shit, no exaggeration.The budget both outrages me (how can a person even suggest cutting military benefits right now, really) and frightens me. I lived through the Reagan era and am hardly shocked by the widening gap between rich and poor (which continued to widen through Clinton's administration), but the naked savagery with which this administration steals from the poor to give to the rich feels like something new to me. This budget is vampiric.
Although no formal cease-fire was signed at the summit, it was widely seen as a step toward talks on a U.S.-backed "road map" for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.And this one:
. . .
Palestinians and Israelis at home voiced doubts that the truce would lead to an immediate end to hostilities.
"I don't think anyone in Israel thinks it will be different tomorrow and there will be quiet," said 32-year-old Israeli graduate student Yoav Kanyas. "However, there is some sort of optimism for peace, which was not there until now."
Last April, after celebrating his second year sober, he relapsed again, disappearing for two weeks. His sponsor, who had become a close friend of Nick's, assured me: "Nick won't stay out long. He's not having any fun." Of course I hoped that he was right, but I was no less worried than I was other times he had disappeared -- worried that he could overdose or otherwise cause irreparable damage.I do hope this time it will be different for Israel and Palestine. But I've learned to check my optimism. Sigh.
But he didn't. He returned and withdrew on his own, helped by his sponsor and other friends. He was ashamed -- mortified -- that he slipped. He redoubled his efforts. Ten months later, of course, I am relieved (once again) and hopeful (once again). Nick is working and writing a children's book and articles and movie reviews for an online magazine. He is biking and swimming. He seems emphatically committed to his sobriety, but I have learned to check my optimism.
Generation Engage is distinct from other youth voter initiatives in that it explicitly strives to reach all young people, including those not affiliated with academic institutions. Generation Engage is premised on the notion that young people do not engage politically – or more specifically, vote – because they do not feel tied to the political process. They feel politically fragmented and detached from one another. Generation Engage strives to address that.But the kicker for me was this:
A 2002 Time-CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelations are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. . . . people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth, when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"I'm with him on that last part, but am I wrong to be skeptical about the rest? Someone please reassure me that it's not that bad.
. . .
It is hard for the journalist to report a story like this with any credibility. So let me put it on a personal level. I myself don't know how to be in this world without expecting a confident future and getting up every morning to do what I can to bring it about. So I have always been an optimist. Now, however, I think of my friend on Wall Street whom I once asked: "What do you think of the market?"I'm optimistic," he answered. "Then why do you look so worried?" And he answered: "Because I am not sure my optimism is justified."
In an opinion issued Friday, Cook County Judge Jeffrey Lawrence said "a pre-embryo is a 'human being' ... whether or not it is implanted in its mother's womb."Here's what I want to know: there were nine embryos in question, does that mean that the couple would be guilty of criminal negligence had they not implanted all nine, one after the other, in Alison's womb? Could Alison and Todd have declared them as dependents on their tax forms? For fuck's sake. I'm not nearly as reasonable and generous about this as Shakespeare's Sister, from whence comes the link. I think it's patently ridiculous that we are at a point in our history where we confer human status on a small bunch of frozen cells all the while massacring thousands in other countries. I know...it's an obvious point. Forgive me; I nonetheless need to utter it now and then.
He said the couple is as entitled to seek compensation as any parents whose child has been killed.
Seated amid stacks of Korans and religious texts, Hitar explains that his system is simple. He invites militants to use the Koran to justify attacks on innocent civilians and when they cannot, he shows them numerous passages commanding Muslims not to attack civilians, to respect other religions, and fight only in self-defense.Though one wonders if this is just an iron fist in a velvet glove situation, where prisoners say whatever they need to in order to escape punishment, it actually seems to be working. Hitar claims that there have been no terrorist attacks in Yemen since the first set of dialogues, and he has been invited to France, Germany, and London to speak about his successes.
For example, he quotes: "Whoever kills a soul, unless for a soul, or for corruption done in the land--it is as if he had slain all mankind entirely. And, whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely." He uses the passage to bolster his argument against bombing Western targets in Yemen--attacks he says defy the Koran. And, he says, the Koran says under no circumstances should women and children be killed.
If, after weeks of debate, the prisoners renounce violence they are released and offered vocational training courses and help to find jobs.
"U.S. mistakes in the region may inflame Muslim anger and create more extremism and hatred," political analyst Mohammad al-Sabri told IPS. "We cannot convince militants that America is not against Islam while we see the U.S. forces inhumanely abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison, and unlimited U.S. support for Israelis against Palestinians."Perhaps needless to say, this is yet another news item that has been buried under the avalanche of reporting about Michael Jackson and Brad and Jennifer. As I said below in the post about the Stop Government Propaganda Act, I think this is one of the most fruitful functions of blogs: writing about neglected stories that belong above the fold. I am certainly given to hand-wringing harangues about the well reported news, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. We are the culture's smoke alarm at this point. What I am saying is that I think sometimes we can get a bit caught up in the buzz--wanting to talk about what everyone is talking about. Let's not stop there. Let's keep our commitment to unearth and talk about the stuff no one is talking about. (Don't mistake this for a finger-shaking post--most blogs I read do this very thing--it's more of a "keep up the good work" idea I'm trying to express.)
Sheikh Haza'a al-Maswari, Islah party member of parliament declared at Friday prayers recently that "we cannot tell militants don't terrorise Americans, or don't attack their interests. Those who plant hatred will harvest hatred."
"One argument that could be made is that his writings and speeches have degenerated to a point where they are representative of professional incompetence," said Paul Campos, a law professor at the university and a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News. "In the same way, a college would not tolerate a member of the history department who said the Holocaust didn't happen."Well, you know what Campos, if this guy is fired for that essay, there is no notion of tenure for a person to support.
Campos said even professors should have limits.
"A position that says you cannot fire a tenured professor because of anything he says is untenable--politically, morally and ethically," he said. "And I have had people in positions of power tell me that if this guy can't be fired, they can't support the notion of tenure."
Scalia has been active on the Washington social scene in recent weeks, hamming it up with the political crowd. Some court observers say this may be an effort to counter White House concerns that the brusque Scalia is ill-suited for a job demanding consensus.Or should I say he's "doing nothing to discourage the talk." If you're not convinced he's a pig, read Center for American Progress' short list of scary opinions.
. . .
During the presidential campaign, Bush cited Scalia, 68, and Thomas as justices he admired because of their narrow interpretation of the Constitution. Thomas privately has made it clear that he is not interested in becoming chief justice, according to friends and former clerks.
But the Nevada Democrat said that he could support Thomas' fellow conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, if he were nominated.Would that we could somehow populate the halls of Congress with more Searchlight, Nevada natives. If only we could count on more incisive, hard hitting Senators like Reid. Such an inspiration for liberal America.
"I cannot dispute the fact, as I have said, that this is one smart guy," Reid said of Scalia. "And I disagree with many of the results that he arrives at, but his reasons for arriving at those results are very hard to dispute."
Citing a hunting trip Scalia took with Dick Cheney before hearing a case involving the commission the vice president set up to work on an energy bill, Reid said the justice has some ethics problems.
"So we have to get over this," he said.
Some people will, of course, disagree with my analysis, but it presents questions that must be addressed in academic and public debate if we are to find a real solution to the violence that pervades today's world. The gross distortions of what I actually said can only be viewed as an attempt to distract the public from the real issues at hand and to further stifle freedom of speech and academic debate in this country.
AURORA, Colo. — A student protest turned into a brawl here Thursday, shutting down a meeting of the University of Colorado board of regents after it agreed to investigate a professor who compared the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to Nazis.The article takes up three main topics: the protest, the content of Churchill's article, and the question of Churchill's ethnicity (is he an American Indian or one step up from a cigar store replica?). Leaving aside the latter (in part because I am uneducated on the question and in part because I really tire over arguments about who is "authentic" and who is authorized to speak about what), here are some excerpts about the first two:
School officials struggled to be heard as students in the room screamed "Fascist regents!" and "Let the public speak!" One protester got into a shoving match, then a full-blown fight with police. Chaos erupted as students dove over chairs to taunt officers while regents were shuffled out a side door for their own safety.Sadly, I am so tired I won't give this subject the justice it deserves, but I want to say a couple of things, if only in brief. First, I have read a slew of articles recently about bloggers, articles that praise weblogs for their attention to stories that might not otherwise come to the attention of the general public. But almost all of the articles have some sort of "but they're not real journalists" provisos. Why? Because of tone and a lack of objectivity. Many of my companions online have already pointed out the obvious--we're not pretending to be objective. But the LA Times is, and let's look again at the above article. There's a word choice issue ("shriek," "dove," "taunt," "chaos"...). There's a sentence structure issue ("though he retains his $94,200-a-year teaching job"). There's a framing issue ("after it agreed to investigate a professor who compared the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to Nazis" not "after it bowed to pressure from conservative pundits such as Bill O'Reilly and agreed to investigate a professor who argued that all Americans are culpable for policies that result in starvation and death").
"What country am I living in?" shrieked one demonstrator.
Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, later decried the scene as "mob rule" and repeated his calls for Churchill's dismissal. Meanwhile, the state Senate passed a resolution Thursday denouncing the professor's remarks as "evil and inflammatory."
The furor over remarks by Churchill, 57, began last week. He was asked to speak at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., about Native American prison issues. But professors there discovered a paper he wrote after the Sept. 11 attacks titled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens."
Churchill called those working in the World Trade Center "technocrats of empire" and "little Eichmanns," comparing them to Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi mastermind of the Holocaust. He said the workers were "civilians of a sort."
"But innocent? Gimme a break," he wrote.
Churchill said the "combat teams" that killed nearly 3,000 people "manifested the courage of their convictions." In a taped speech, he said that if the Pentagon wasn't a legitimate target, "I don't know what is."
Outrage ensued, and Monday Churchill stepped down as chairman of the department of ethnic studies, though he retains his $94,200-a-year teaching job. Hamilton College canceled his speech, saying it had received so many threats that it couldn't ensure his or the students' safety.
Churchill, who specializes in Native American issues, has said his writings were taken out of context, and that he meant that if America behaved unjustly it could not expect to be spared from attack.
All told, Iraq has a population of about 18 million. The 500,000 kids lost to date thus represent something on the order of 25 percent of their age group. Indisputably, the rest have suffered – are still suffering – a combination of physical debilitation and psychological trauma severe enough to prevent their ever fully recovering. In effect, an entire generation has been obliterated.Thus the "roosting chickens" in the title: "Globalization: 'Some People Push Back' On the Justice of Roosting Chickens."
The reason for this holocaust was/is rather simple, and stated quite straightforwardly by President George Bush, the 41st "freedom-loving" father of the freedom-lover currently filling the Oval Office, George the 43rd: "The world must learn that what we say, goes," intoned George the Elder to the enthusiastic applause of freedom-loving Americans everywhere.
How Old George conveyed his message was certainly no mystery to the US public. One need only recall the 24-hour-per-day dissemination of bombardment videos on every available TV channel, and the exceedingly high ratings of these telecasts, to gain a sense of how much they knew.
In trying to affix a meaning to such things, we would do well to remember the wave of elation that swept America at reports of what was happening along the so-called Highway of Death: perhaps 100,000 "towel-heads" and "camel jockeys" – or was it "sand niggers" that week? – in full retreat, routed and effectively defenseless, many of them conscripted civilian laborers, slaughtered in a single day by jets firing the most hyper-lethal types of ordnance.
It was a performance worthy of the nazis during the early months of their drive into Russia. And it should be borne in mind that Good Germans gleefully cheered that butchery, too. Indeed, support for Hitler suffered no serious erosion among Germany's "innocent civilians" until the defeat at Stalingrad in 1943.
There may be a real utility to reflecting further, this time upon the fact that it was pious Americans who led the way in assigning the onus of collective guilt to the German people as a whole, not for things they as individuals had done, but for what they had allowed – nay, empowered – their leaders and their soldiers to do in their name.
The history of the present King [George III] of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.And so on.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Mr. Cantu is experimenting with liquid nitrogen, helium and superconductors to make foods levitate. And while many chefs speak of buying new ovens or refrigerators, he wants to invest in a three-dimensional printer to make physical prototypes of his inventions, which he now painstakingly builds by hand. The 3-D printer could function as a cooking device, creating silicone molds for pill-sized dishes flavored, say, like watermelon, bacon and eggs or even beef Bourguignon, he said, and he could also make edible molds out of cornstarch.Call it "why Baudrillard should not be allowed in the kitchen."
When the GAO finds that taxpayer funds are misspent for propaganda purposes, and the agency fails to follow the GAO's ordered actions, our bill would call for the head of that agency's salary to be withheld.Go Frank!
. . .
As we seek to establish democracy in Iraq, let's first remove this taint from our own democracy.
There's likely more to come. While Bush said last week that he wants his departments to cease paying columnists, his administration has doled out $250 million in taxpayer money to private public-relations firms, twice what had been spent before. More of that indefensible largesse will likely turn up in propaganda masquerading as journalism. That is, after all, the point of public relations. The story will emerge slowly because the Democrats don't control Congress and can issue no subpoenas, and because there's so little digging into what goes on inside federal agencies. Why? With daily deadlines and frequent TV gigs, Washington reporters are stretched too thin.Okay folks, Newsweek has given us our marching orders. Long live the broadside!! Everyone go post about the Stop Government Propaganda Act now. (When you type that into Technorati, you get 120 hits.)
So can the bloggers ride to the rescue, as they did in Rathergate? They offer readers a huge new menu of tasty and often nourishing bite-size appetizers, while keeping what they call the "mainstream media" (MSM) from spitting in the soup [well, that's not really what we call you, but okay]. And the democratic din of thousands of competing voices is exactly what the Founders envisioned when they sought to protect the rights of pamphleteers, who were the bloggers of the early republic.
But by mid-afternoon Mr. Gonzales did have the support of at least three Democratic senators, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Ken Salazar and Ben Nelson, both of Colorado.Did they share a cigar? I'm wondering.
Mr. Lieberman said he believed that a president should be able to pick his Cabinet team, barring compelling reasons to the contrary. The senator said he had met with the nominee and was satisfied that Mr. Gonzales's allegiance was "to the Constitution and the people of this country," not simply to President Bush.
Mr. Salazar introduced Mr. Gonzales to the Senate and later said he had been reassured by a letter from the nominee in which Mr. Gonzales unequivocally rejected torture.
And a spokesman for Mr. Nelson, David DiMartino, said today that Mr. Gonzales had had a private meeting with the senator and eliminated any reservations Mr. Nelson might have had.
They met just before the speech began: the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq and the daughter of a man killed by Saddam Hussein's regime. They found some comfort in a spontaneous moment that electrified President Bush's State of the Union address.From Godey's Lady's Book (February 1850):
The two women, both touched by death in Iraq, reached out for each other while lawmakers, military leaders, the president and the nation watched. Their hug inspired the longest applause of the evening.
Bush said the women's locked embrace was a touching moment and an expression of compassion and appreciation from an Iraqi who enjoyed the freedom to vote on Sunday. . . .
Pain etched lines in Norwood's forehead as she held al-Suhail. Norwood finally let go, took her husband's arm and rested her head on his shoulder. . . .
There is a beautiful parallelism between the condition of woman in her domestic life and the character of a nation. She is the mother of men, and the former of their minds, at that early age when every word distills upon the heart like the dew-drop upon the tender grass. There is to that young mind no truth or falsehood in the world but that whose words flow from the mother's lips. There is no beauty in character, nor glory in action, which has not been concentrated by her praise. . . . It is thus that society is formed in its social and moral ideas; and thus its condition must ever present, on a large scale, a parallelism in its moral life to the condition of woman. It is not n matter of fancy, but a great social fact. Edward D. Mansfield.Groundhog Day, indeed. This is like the Wal-mart approach to gender ("We're rolling back social progress!")
As soon as I get on the bus, the tour guide, an Australian fellow throws a warm smile in my direction. He sees my seventh brigade tag and starts telling the group of American tourists my unit's historical significance. I ask him in English where the group is from and he says Long Island, New York. I think to myself this isn't happening and before I know it, regretting it as I begin speaking, I tell him that I grew up on Long Island. He immediately informs the tour group who begin to bombard me with questions.Harry, we all feel your pain. Well, not the bris pain, the mahjong-playing Fay pain. (Story comes via the amazingly named Protocols of the Yuppies of Zion)
"Where are you from on the Island?"
"Port Jefferson Station"
"Is that near Port Washington?"
"No, it's near Stony Brook"
"Where did you go to school?"
"SUNY Albany"
"Did you know my daughter Deborah Finkelstein? She was in AEPhi!
"No, I didn't really hang with the sorority girls."
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"No"
"Debbie would be perfect for you."
"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind next time I'm in NY"
Amidst the rumbling I hear a voice call out, "Oh My Gawd. Harry? Is that you?"
I cringe. This isn't happening. Who could possibly know me on this bus?
"Harry, it's Fay. I play mahjong with your mother every Tuesday!"
Jesus fucking Christ. What are the chances? I needed to get off that bus immediately. I might be smiley and look happy, but eyes are glancing outside to see how much longer I have to deal with this until I get to my army base, which had suddenly become my fortress of solitude.
"So how are you Harry? You look great! So tan! I can't wait to tell your mother I saw you!"
"Thanks. Tell her to send me more chocolate licorice and a few more books. The classics. I feel neglected!" I said jokingly.
"I'll send her the message!" she tells me. Suddenly, she turns around and yells to everyone on the bus...
"I WAS AT HIS BRIS EVERYONE! I WAS AT HIS BRIS!!"
"There's a line between right and wrong, and it seems like anymore nowadays that line has got all jumbled up."I'm with you Maxine. Get some pasties on those juice waitresses. All those men downing wheatgrass shots and those jambas jiggling. God help us all. Thankfully, state senator Clarence Kooistra is on the case and has legislation in the hopper:
"We do not want the Salem area and McCook County to be known as Sin City, South Dakota," he says.And here I need to interject and say my father, oddly enough, was born in South Dakota. Happily he escaped before the line got jumbled up. He found the line, in fact, to be quite straight and narrow. "I don't know if people live longer in the Midwest," he would say, "or if it just feels that way."
