THOSE CRAZY CEPHALOPODS!

Curious goings on in California - could it be the reason for our own (O)CT(O)PUS' absence?

This innocent looking female octopus managed to open a valve above her tank allowing hundreds of gallons of sea water to overflow her tank and flooding the floor, probably doing a lot of damage at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. Perhaps this explains the mysterious absence of 8pus - no doubt one of his offspring now in need of rescue!

And I wished I had learned about this curious creature before adopting my now familiar Rocky moniker. This new species was found in the waters of Indonesia. It is a type of frogfish with a beige body, peach colored stripes and blue eyes leading to its scientific name Histiophryne Pyschedelica and it bounces around on the sea floor on feet like fins.

How cool is that? Just call me Psychedelica!

An End to the Iraq War in Sight

Obama's Iraq withdrawal speech today was excellent - his best speech in awhile. In case you missed it, here are the main points: an end to combat missions in Iraq by August 31, 2009 2010, and a 35,000-50,000 troop residual force that will be fully withdrawn by the end of 2011, as per our agreement with the Iraqi government. Obama was also clear about his intent to help our soldiers and their families - the biggest applause line from the soldiers at Camp Lejeune where he spoke was for Obama saying he will raise military salaries. And he sounded truly sincere in his praise of the Iraqi people.

One thing that really stood out to me about the speech was that Obama mentioned his commitment during the campaign to a 16-month withdrawal - and then highlighted that he was settling, after much consultation with the military commanders, on an 18-month withdrawal. Many on the left are disappointed in this, but I find it thrilling that he didn't try to cover up the two-month difference, he didn't try to hide the fact that his policy shifted slightly. Listen carefully to how he actually emphasizes 18, as if to draw increased attention to the alteration. This man isn't concerned with typical cover-your-butt politics, he wants to inform the American people to the greatest extent possible. He wants to help, he wants to teach, he wants to be an effective Commander in Chief. He is honest.

The video is below. It is a must watch. Take a good look - this is the sort of leadership our military has needed for many, many years.

Bets on whether or not the Democratic Party will come to be the party of national security?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

--

This post originally appeared on The Political Panorama.

Typical

"Now isn't that typical"

-The Church Lady-

There are always stories in the local paper that make me rant and rave philosophical. At first glance these two stories seem to have little in common, but they do because of the different reactions people have to them -- which illustrates my point.

The first story is about an undocumented Guatemalan man who worked for a local gardening service. The truck he was riding in was hit head on by a drunk driver and Luis Jimenez suffered severe and irreversible brain trauma. Having no money, no local family and no insurance the local hospital took him in and over a period of a few years, his bills climbed into the millions. After three years, the hospital was granted a court order allowing them to charter a Medivac jet to send him home to his family, but the bill of course stayed here and will eventually be covered by increased insurance costs to all of us. End of story? No, his family has charged the hospital with kidnapping and is suing for damages.

The second story about a local homeless man caught swiping M&M's, T shirts and other items from a convenience store. He has a history of drug and public intoxication arrests, but he claims that he's entitled to all the M&Ms he can steal -- because he served in Iraq.

So what do these stories have to do with each other? Nothing really, but my reason for comparing them is that while people who write to newspapers use the first to howl and scream about illegal aliens and how this is typical of all of them, nobody uses the second to tell us that all Iraq veterans should be deported.

What makes something "typical" of a group? Usually our prejudices, our hidden fears and our dishonesty. Aren't we typical!

ANNOUNCEMENT FROM OCTOPUS

Your faithful 8pus will be away for two to three weeks. Please do not think I am abandoning, ignoring, or neglecting you. I will be working as a co-contributor on a story, a very big story, with Lindsay (from Majikthise) that will receive national attention once we finish it. We can’t tell you what it is, of course, until the project is done. But I promise you this: It will debut here.

Meanwhile, have fun, play nicely, and see you when I return.

Say it ain't so, Bobby

We can see that Bobby Jindal likes to talk as though his audience were all preschoolers and wear ties he borrowed from Bozo the Clown, but did Bobby Jindal make up a story? Seems like it.

Tuesday night's speech to congress had the man who would be president calling himself a hero, insisting that boats be allowed to rescue people of New Orleans stranded on rooftops; standing firm when some nasty ol' gummint bureaucrat was telling the sheriff that boats without proof of insurance would have to stay home. Only problem is, says Talking Points Memo -- he wasn't in the sheriff's office -- he may not even have been in New Orleans and the sheriff didn't know about the policy until weeks later.

Seems his only course of action may be to insist, like Sarah Palin, that she really did say "thanks but no thanks" and really did sell the state jet on eBay when she didn't and blame it all on the Liberal Media. Good luck to the both of them.

A NEW GENERATION OF HOPE!

Stories like this one are what we should be seeing on the nightly news instead of which celeb is gaining weight, losing weight, doing drugs, going to rehab, etc, etc.

When I read about kids like 12 year old Max Wallack I want to stand up and cheer for a new generation that gives me hope for the future.

Max is one of those “gifted” kids who will probably never make a winning touchdown but he will most certainly make a name for himself just the same. In fact, he's already well on his way. Max won a contest by creating the shelter pictured here out of trash; namely wire, plastic and packing peanuts. He won $10,000 and a Dell computer but modest Max isn’t too impressed with himself. “I don’t really care about the money. I care about helping people.”

And his ambition began at an early age. “When I was six,” Max said, “I won an invention contest that included a trip to Chicago. While there, I saw homeless people living on streets, and beneath highways and underpasses. I felt very sorry for these people, and ever since then, felt that my goal and obligation was to find a way to help them. My invention improves the living conditions for homeless people, refugees, or disaster victims by giving them easy-to-assemble shelter.”

So, here’s to Max and all those in his generation looking to make the world a better place. While their elders are talking these issues to death, our children are making us look like fools and I for one am thankful that they are!

CHEERS!

Let them eat Lobster

I just don't know any more and perhaps soon enough I just won't care. I got cornered by a woman at my club last night who went on and on about her money being wasted in earmarks for tattoo removal. This seems to be the red herring this week and the fishy smell of course is emanating from Fox, with people ( and I use the term loosely) like Michelle Malkin working overtime to make the most of it.

Apparently some money will go to a program to remove gang tattoos in California. Some will go for the Lobster fishing industry in Maine -- I don't need to repeat the litany, just turn on Fox or read any of the Ditto sites that repeat it ad nauseam, but we're hearing far less about billions to companies that use it for executive pay and bonuses; jets and yachts than we are about millions to entities that spend money on the poor and disadvantaged or on industries that employ Americans. All around her, of course are bankrupt businesses, foreclosed houses and homeless people. Perhaps one of them works for a dermatologist who removes tattoos. Perhaps there's someone who works in maintaining the 20,000 or so acres of parkland in this county -- land that attracts more in tourism than we spend making it pretty.

Certainly some of them in this coastal village are commercial fishermen whose boats are being foreclosed on, which is affecting the sales of gasoline and services which is forcing marinas to close and people in boatyards and grocery stores and tackle shops to be laid off. Saving an industry that employs Americans is at least a bridge to somewhere and criticism from people who have represented and supported the greatest orgy of non-productive pork barrel spending is almost as disgusting -- well, as Michelle Malkin.

It's easy to call any budget a series of "earmarks" and it beats me to think about how one allocates funds without allocating funds, unless you follow the Bush/Paulson "don't ask because we won't tell, you liberal bastard" model. One thing is for sure; some Maine fisherman is more likely to be salting cod with whatever comes his way from this package than salting money away in the Caymans or buying German cars or yachts made in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

The whole idea of economic stimulus is to produce liquidity and improve the velocity of money so that maybe fewer people will lose their homes and jobs and businesses. The sudden parsimony of people who said nothing as tens of trillions of debt piled up, as money disappeared into the bowels of offshore corporations like Halliburton, was disbursed in pizza boxes to Iraqi war profiteers and corrupt politicians, should be embarrassing. Being a Republican however, is never to feel embarrassment, guilt or remorse, but to look for the solace of being told it's the doing of the "liberals."

As I said, I'm almost to the point of not caring any more. If we really are a nation of people hypocritically obsessed with the motes in other people's eyes, or stimulus packages, to the point where they would gladly see the end of the United States as a world power, we deserve what we get.

What we have here is a failure to cogitate

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke sees 2010 recovery "only if" markets and banks stabilize, says Bloomberg.com. I see prospects for cheap, aerial fertilizer delivery if pigs learn to fly.

Listening to songs that have "degrading lyrics" may cause teenagers to have more sex. So said Dr. Brian A. Primack, a pediatrician and co- author of a study released Tuesday. Yep and a billion or so years of evolution contribute to the tendency too, but thanks Brian -- I think I understand much better now. It's a bit like insisting that to grant veteran's benefits to Filipino soldiers who fought alongside General McArthur will hasten the financial collapse of the US economy or that unplugging your cell phone charger will "save the planet."

I feel lucky if I can save my sanity.

THE GLOBAL GENDER GAP - 2008

Here are results from the latest Global Gender Gap Report complied by the World Economic Forum.  Specifically, the Report measures the gender gap according to these criteria:

Economic participation and opportunity 

Wage equality, management equality, access to high-skilled employment – as a ratio of female to male;

Educational attainment

Literacy rate, primary, secondary, and advanced enrollment - 

as a ratio of female to male;

Political empowerment 

Parliamentary and ministerial positions, heads of state in years - as a ratio of female to male;

Health care and survival 

Life expectancy and sex ratio at birth.

The Report does not penalize those countries having fewer resources (lower levels of education for example), but assesses countries on how fairly they distribute existing resources between women and men.

Covering 128 countries and 92% of the world’s population, the report shows equality gains for women in two-thirds of the nations studied. Compared with previous study years, gaps in education, political empowerment, and economic opportunity have narrowed, whereas gaps in health care have widened.  One implication of the study is a strong correlation between competitiveness and gender equality; countries that do not utilize their full human potential lose competitiveness. In virtually all countries surveyed, gender equality is weakest on indices of political empowerment.

So where does the good ole U.S. of A. stand on gender equality?  Here are the top ten countries in overall ranking:

(Click on image to enlarge)

Oops!  The good ole U.S. of A., leader of the free world and shining beacon of hope and opportunity, is not even among the top ten.  How about the next group of countries, ranked 11 through 20?

(Click on image to enlarge)

Nope.  Not there.  So where are you hiding, good ole U.S. of A (under a pile of WMDs)?

(Click on image to enlarge)

There you are!  Good ole U.S. of A is ranked number 27 ... well behind the Philippines (ranked #6), Sri Lanka (#12), Lesotho (#16), Mozambique (#18), Cuba (#25), and Barbados (#26).  What a nice role model, good ole U.S. of A., leader of the free world and shining beacon of hope and opportunity!

For a PDF copy of the full report, click here.

Bigger, more intrusive government

"The makers of the Constitution conferred the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by all civilized men—the right to be let alone."

-Justice Louis Brandeis-

Whenever there's a lot of outrage being sold, whether it's about protecting children, preventing tax shelters or defending the faith, it's fairly safe to assume they're selling something else and it's safer to assume it's something you wouldn't have bought otherwise.

There are few things easier to bundle with invasive, intrusive or even abusive government than protecting children, hence the carefully maintained impression that children are in vastly more danger then ever before and controlling the internet in the cause of controlling people and their unwanted thoughts and words attaches to our parental fears like a remora to a shark.

A free internet

"offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children,"

says U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican. Well of course! So does freedom of association and freedom of speech and assembly and of course, so does freedom in general. It also offers opportunities for dissent, for exposure of secrets of invidious nature and other things authoritarian and paranoid governments fear. So in order to protect the children, Cornyn would like to make sure that with every word you write, every breath you take, every move you make, he'll be watching you. listening to your calls, reading your mail, checking your financial records, tracking your movements: all these things we bought in the name of Bush's "warrontare" and yet it's not enough.

The plan is to have everything you say on the internet and a list of every search you make and every site you visit stored for the benefit of anyone who may want to investigate you -- for two years. Two bills have been introduced so far--S.436 in the Senate and H.R.1076 in the House. Both bills bear the same title: "Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act," or Internet Safety Act. Both use the same words:

"A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user."

And what is a provider or remote service? If you're got a home network with a wired or wireless router, you are! Better buy another hard drive and keep it backed up, you potential child molester, you.

"That sweeps in not just public Wi-Fi access points, but password-protected ones too, and applies to individuals, small businesses, large corporations, libraries, schools, universities, and even government agencies. Voice over IP services may be covered too."

says CNN.com's Declan McCullagh.

Alberto Gonzales may be gone, George Bush may be a bad memory, but the Republican Dream lives on. A country where nothing you do is private and nothing they do is public; a country where "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects" is seen as an unnecessary impediment to control.

Absolute statements and American Values

I'm sorry I haven't posted here of late... I think I'm just more of a debater than a writer of original material. This piece did come out pretty well though, if I do say so myself... It's adapted from a comment I wrote in reply to an observation someone made about me, and I think it's good enough to share, here... Sorry if it comes off preachy, but sometimes I am just that kinda person...
----------

It's probably the liberal in me, but I don't go in much for the whole black/white, good/evil, with us/with the terrorists kinda thinkin'. I don't believe there are all that many absolutes, and I reject statements that speak in absolute terms. Just about all saints have sinned, and most sinners have performed good acts, too. All Americans (or Muslims) are not good. All Muslims (or Americans) are not evil. Not everyone who claims to be a faithful _______ (place religion/denomination of choice there) acts like one.

Just about anytime a person speaks of a whole group of people, whether chosen & denoted by their religion, their ethnicity, their country of origin, or any other factor, and speaks of them as though they are all one kinda person (whether all good, or all evil), one is almost certainly going to end up being factually incorrect in what one is saying about them. To group people together based on ethnicity, religion or country of origin, and then treat them all as one monolithic entity is the very definition of bigotry.

The same is true of me & politics. As a Green, I seldom agree with Conservative or Republican thought. (And contrary to what some have said about me, I'm generally not a big fan of Democratic thought, either.) Still, it's mighty rare to find me saying "Conservatives are evil" (or anything else, either), because I just don't think that way... Whatever issues and disagreements I have with individual conservatives or Republicans, wherever I may find them, they do not prove anything about ALL Conservatives, or Republicans, (or about any other groups to which such Conservatives or Republicans may belong, like "college professors," or "guys with hats," for instance...) Good or bad, whatever I'm saying about you, I'm saying it about you, alone.

I try to treat the people I meet as individuals, not as representatives of the groups they were either born into or chose to affiliate themselves with... Call me naive or crazy if you must, but I believe the more folks treat others as individuals, the better our personal & global relations with each other will be...

If you want (or want me) to condemn or praise individual people and / or individual acts, that's one thing... But chances are slim you'll ever get me to say all ________ are ____________, and I encourage everyone reading these words to give it a lot of thought before doing so yourselves. To my way of thinkin', it's neither intellectually or morally right to do so.

Yes, there is evil in the world, but it isn't "the Muslims," or "the conservatives," or "the non-believing nihilists" that are the cause of it. It's individual men & women murdering others, raping others, and treating others with disrespect and derision in a myriad of other ways large and small, that is at the heart of evil.

That's what I think, anyway...

The original version of this piece, and the comment to which I was replying, appear here, in case anyone's interested. I also posted this version to my blog, Wingnuts & Moonbats (link in the list to the right, somewhere), 'cause I haven't been doing enough posting there of late, either, and saw no reason not to kill lots of birds with the same single stone... 8>)

AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVELERS' CHEQUES: DON’T LAUNDER MONEY WITHOUT THEM - PART TWO

The problem defined:  The purpose of money laundering is to disguise financial assets that can be used without detection in the pursuit of illegal activities. Drug dealers, terrorists, arms dealers, and other criminals operate and expand their enterprises through the use of laundered money. While this may seem an obvious point, what is less understood is how criminals use our banking system to further these activities.

A case in point, this older story about American Express from August 6, 2007:

American Express Co. (AXP.N) agreed to pay $65 million for failing to detect drug-related money transactions laundered through a subsidiary over several years, U.S. authorities said on Monday.

All American financial institutions are required to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires institutions to flag any transactions deemed suspicious and report movements of money over $10,000.

According to a GAO Report (July 2002), an estimated $500 billion is laundered annually. In the same report, the GAO admits: "The extent to which money laundering through credit cards may be occurring is unknown."

What these accounts fail to mention is the ease of using money orders and travelers’ checks as a means of money laundering.  This issue dogged American Express decades ago when Treasury officials confronted the firm in the 1980s for lax monitoring of its Travel Related Services (TRS) division.  Amex and other banks have long taken the position that it is too burdensome to report suspicious transactions to law enforcement.  My point: The story of banks participating in money laundering schemes does not begin nor end with Sir Allen .  In this context, Wall Street has always been a partner in crime, and this has been going on for a very long time.

AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVELERS' CHEQUES: DON’T LAUNDER MONEY WITHOUT THEM

Our good friend Libby just posted an article, Laundering Drug Money, about the latest private equity scandal involving Texas billionaire Allen Stanford. These days, news of scandals flow from the spigot faster than tap water, and my interest is not a rehash. You can read more about this latest scandal here, here, and here.

Now, it seems, Sir Allen is suspected of laundering money for the notorious Gulf cartel. But my question is this:  Why just Sir Allen? Why not American Express? Or Bank of America? And every bank that sells travelers checks?

You see, your crafty Ocotpus has long known about the symbiosis between banking and money laundering, and the worst offender by far is American Express (Amex). This relationship between banking and money laundering is based on a concept known as "float." Here is how it works:

You buy American Express Travelers Cheques weeks in advance of a planned trip, and your trip lasts a few more weeks. Amex makes front-loaded income in the form of commissions from the sale of travelers' checks, but makes far more income on the delay between the time you purchased those checks and the time you spent them.

This delay between purchase and redemption is called "float" ... and Amex uses this "float" money to make more money. Float money is interest-free to Amex and other sellers of these instruments, but Amex can charge high interest rates to all sorts of borrowers for the use of float money. The longer the float, the more money Amex and others can make, and money-laundering has the longest, and most profitable, float of all.

What does every good drug or crime lord know about American Express Travelers Cheques? They are safe and can be redeemed anywhere in the world … just like the advertisement says.

The relationship between travelers’ checks and money laundering is one of Wall Street’s dirtiest, best kept secrets. Now you know.

Knock, knock. Someone at my door. Ooops! Gotta go …

Truth in comics?

The truth is that "controversial" cartoonist Sean Delonas is a provocateur who really doesn't care about the limits of decency, or about appearing to be joking about murdering the President, or comparing a man of exceptional intelligence, education and achievement to a dead ape.

Humor is a wonderful tool for saying what is difficult to say, but when the difficulty stems from offending the dignity of people of African Descent and indeed of the United States of America, the tool is no longer wonderful. I've been vilified for criticizing George Bush as has everyone who disagreed with him. Bush's mildest critics have been called vicious, unpatriotic and "deranged" but although he's often been depicted as a monkey, I can't recall a single cartoon in the mainstream press showing him being shot by the police. Double standard? We need a better word than understatement to describe it.

"The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, it broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy"

Said Post editor-in-chief Col Allan. No it isn't. I'm the last one to go hunting for racist innuendo, but this isn't innuendo, it's a classic piece of bigotry right out of the Jim Crow era and it can't be whitewashed by slurs against Al Sharpton, whether you like him or not. Everyone on the planet who believes we are a violent nation of racists will nod his head at this. It will be reproduced in papers all over the world just at the time when Obama's election was beginning to change people's minds and that's just what the rabid right wants: failure for America, Resurrection for the policies that have torpedoed the world.

Delonas has left us a long slime trail of disgusting cartoons pandering to the demented, deranged, stupid, bigoted, homophobic and social misfits who read Murdoch publications looking for justification and stories of alien abduction.

It's time the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post found someone else to write the next cartoon. It's time America found better places to look for information.

It's not fraud when we do it

We've certainly seen and heard plenty of haughty harumphment aver the tax problems of Tim Geithner. We've had more of the "more of the same" from the same folks who gave us, or tried to give us Sarah Palin as a Joan of Arc reformer and an upholder of the kind of ethics Republicans like to talk about while trying to keep us from examining their own failings.

We're not seeing a hell of a lot about Sarah Palin's tax problems. It seems that it hadn't occurred to her that the additional "travel related" money she was being paid for staying at home in Wasilla ( since her home isn't in the capitol, Juneau) was taxable income. Of course we learned a long time ago that the State of Alaska has been paying for all kinds of family expenses like tickets to basketball games, and sled races, but these things are "private matters" according to her spokeswoman. That's because she's a Republican in a Red State. otherwise any personal detail would be a public matter and could and would be used against her by her party's scandal machine. I'm still waiting for the "Liberal Press" to make a fuss about it. I'm still waiting to hear why everything we do or say on the phone or in our mail: why everything we buy and everywhere we go is no longer a private matter as far as the Government is concerned.

Next time they tell me what a bad break Sarah got from the mean old media, I might just have to mention this, as well as to relate my litany of her other lies.

Of course Alaska is in for some hard times, since 90% of its revenue comes from soaking the oil companies, hard as that might be to explain to laissez faire lovers who supported her anti-Tax rhetoric. " living within our means and putting money aside for a rainier day" is something, like ethics, that Sarah likes to give lip service to while running up debt like a mainstream Republican.

But they're still talking about her as a Presidential Candidate, which is fine with me. Let her select Joe the Plumber as VP too and maybe the accountant she used to hide her expense account shenanigans for Secretary of the Treasury as well. The country's going to hell anyway and we might just as well get it over with. You betcha!

CURSES!

Do you know anyone who lives in South Carolina?  If so, be prepared to take in refugees. This story from Feminist Law Professors will appeal to your inner George Carlin:

South Carolina State Senator Robert Ford is 

trying to outlaw lewd language and profanity

According to the language of the bill:  “It is unlawful for a person in a public forum or place of public accommodation wilfully and knowingly to publish orally or in writing, exhibit, or otherwise make available material containing words, language, or actions of a profane, vulgar, lewd, lascivious, or indecent nature.”

So shut up and don’t call attention to your wedgie in public.  In the Peoples Republic of South Chinalina, it will be considered a felony, resulting in a fine of up to $5,000 or a prison term of up to five years, or both.

The language is overly broad ... the mentality miniscule.  If you hit your thumb with a hammer, make sure you say “ouch” because if you say “$hit” in front of a witness, you have committed a felony. Bible thumpers of the Bible belt beware! Strip Tear out the Songs of Solomon before you give, lend, or sell any Bible to any person. Even the “Word of God” may be considered profane and illegal. And why send juvenile offenders to prison?  Just build a jail around the entire high school.

While pondering the latest WTF, this may be my last opportunity (if I were living in South Chinalina) to quote this poem:

Graffiti

Blessings on all the kids who improve the signs in the subways:

They put a beard on the fashionable lady selling soap,

Fix up her flat chest with the boobies of a chorus girl,

And though her hips be wrapped like a mummy

They draw a hairy cunt where she should have one.

The bathing beauty who looks pleased

With the enormous prick in her mouth declares,

"Eat hair pie; it's better than cornflakes."'

And the little boy in the Tarzan suit eating white bread

Now has a fine pair of balls to crow about.

And as often as you wash the walls and put up your posters,

When you go back to the caged booth to deal out change

The bright-eyed kids will come with grubby hands.

Even if you watch, you cannot watch them all the time,

And while you are dreaming, if you have dreams anymore,

A boy and girl are giggling behind an iron pillar;

And although the train pulls in and takes them on their way

Into a winter that will freeze them forever,

They leave behind a wall scrawled all over with flowers

That shoot great drops of gism through the sky.

Poems Old and New

by Edward Field

The Obamas' Marriage

Andrew Romano has an article in Newsweek describing how millennials are enthralled with Barack and Michelle’s relationship. He writes:

It’s unlikely that anyone watching last month’s Youth Inaugural Ball on TV noticed much difference between how the crowd of millennials welcomed the Louis Vuitton don and how they reacted, a few minutes later, when Barack and Michelle Obama took the stage. But if you were actually in the audience—like me, and my eardrums—the change was impossible to ignore. The young people screamed. The young people sighed. Several young people even began to weep.

[...]

At the time, I attributed the scene to inauguration-induced hysteria. But since Jan. 20, a dozen peers have confirmed that what I witnessed in Washington wasn’t a fluke.

He goes on to wax eloquent about why my generation feels this way:

My hunch is that millennials are going gaga over Barack and Michelle because they want to be Barack and Michelle. It’s not that other generations can’t admire the Obamas’ bond; their marriage—a union of self-sufficient equals—embodies the post-’60s ideal. But unlike their elders, most millennials have yet to experience marriage firsthand, and what they’ve experienced by proxy hasn’t been particularly encouraging: a 50 percent divorce rate, a steep rise in single parenthood, a culture captivated by cheap celebrity hookups.

But now the Obamas—two independent individuals who also appear to be (surprise!) in love—have filled the void. For young people who have rejected the tired “wife in the kitchen” template but resolved not to follow their parents to divorce court, it’s a relief to see that the sort of marriage they hope to have—equal and devoted—can actually exist.

One point I thought Andrew could have stressed more was regarding Barack and Michelle’s parenting. Anyone who watches, even briefly, either parent interact with - or just look at - one of their daughters can see that they care about those girls in a way that few parents do. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Barack and Michelle are outstanding parents, though I obviously don’t have much to base that assertion on. It makes me think their girls will grow up as normally as humanly possible - they deserve it for the sacrifices they’re making.

In any case, the article is worth a read. It does a great job capturing how people my age feel - at least I know it’s how I feel. There is something so real about the Obamas’ relationship. They are clearly excellent role models for this up-and-coming generation. The subtle influence their relationship will have on the nation may prove to have an immense impact down the road.

--

This article is cross-posted at The Political Panorama.

The Story of Dennis

Dennis Stuart Hayle "Mr Long Island"

Once again, I am writing another post about the life of an exceptional young person who is no longer here through no fault of his/her own. Dennis Hayle embodied the spirit of North Carolina A&T University’s “Aggie Pride” and the hope and joy of a generation. But he has now become another murder statistic in a sea of senseless murders that destroy our best and brightest for no apparent reason.

Dennis was not involved in drugs or other illicit activity and he was not in the wrong place – he was, in fact, in the hall outside his apartment having just come from visiting a friend in the same building. And then, on the night of Sunday, January 25th,2009, Dennis Hayle, age 22, was shot to death by an unknown assailant.

But, once again, I refuse to become a voyeur into this young man’s death but instead I want to emphasize and honor the LIFE of Dennis and what he accomplished in his short time on earth.

Dennis grew up in Hempstead, NY on Long Island and, according to his mother, he dreamed of coming to A&T (Greensboro, NC) since he was in the 5th grade. He was a political science and criminal justice major at A & T, ready to graduate in a few months. His dream was to become a lawyer or lobbyist.

Dennis played football, lacrosse and wrestling in high school and overcame a learning disability to accomplish his goals. He attended the college of his dreams and became an Omega Psi Phi fraternity brother. He studied hard and he gave back to the community by mentoring elementary school students and working at homeless shelters.

Dennis went to Washington, DC to attend the inauguration of President Obama just days before he was killed. He has been described as loving, caring, polite, well mannered and the life of the party. One friend said of him, "He was here to make people feel better."

The deaths of these young people aren’t about gender or race or ethnic origins. They are the products of a world of gangs and casual violence and societal apathy. Until we are willing to confront this problem head on and make some tough choices, our children will continue to be collateral damage.

And so, another bright light has gone out in the world.

I’m sorry, Dennis…

WOMEN IN ART

Digital Video by Philip Scott Johnson

Five hundred years of female portraits in Western Art.
Music: Bach's Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma.

In the old days before the availability of computer-generated imaging techniques, a sequence of still photos would be called a “montage,” and the choice of continuity would be the “lap dissolve.” Following a shooting script similar in concept to traditional cell-animation, 2-dimensional artwork would be photographed on a rostrum camera having compound X, Y and rotational movements.

Although similar in concept, digital techniques add an extra dimension … the ability to interpolate colors and forms, also called “morphing,” between still subjects. Early morphing techniques often resulted in bizarre effects ... in-between frames appearing misshapen and grotesque. In this example, Johnson avoids these pitfalls. Subjects merge smoothly, and the effect is pleasing. The execution is a worthy tribute to women in art.

Slow, Slow Stamps

Yesterday I needed a stamp. So I went to the post office. I stood in line. For a long time. For ever. In a long line. With other people – just buying stamps.

As I stood – waiting - & waiting – I thought about WHY I was standing – for –ever – to buy a simple book of stamps.

Last Fall I had come to my same local post office in search of a stamp only to discover that the stamp machine had been ripped off the wall. So – I had to go stand in line. I did. For ever. When I finally got to the counter & asked for my stamp & inquired about when the stamp machine would be fixed, I was told it wasn’t coming back – gone for good. Naturally I asked why. The explanation was that the person in charge of the machine had retired & the position was being discontinued. I asked – with the faintest hint of sarcasm – so that means we have to stand in line just to buy stamps? Yes. Making the line longer? Yes. Taking up more of your time? Yes.

After putting my precious stamp on my piece of mail & mailing it, I pondered the idiocy of all of this. Grumbling about the Herculean effort to be required in the future to buy stamps. Shaking my head at the lack of foresight of post office officials about efficiency. Needless to say – I was irritated.

Now – like many people today – I don’t use that many stamps. Maybe 2 or 3 a month. I pay most of my bills on line & lord knows I don’t send anyone any personal letters. So my stamp needs are minimal. And perhaps this was calculated into the post office’s decision to do away with the stamp machine – our changing mail habits. And yes – I could buy a large quantity of stamps all at one time to avoid the occasional stand in line (I buy 10 at a time) BUT BUT BUT I stopped doing that because they keep raising the price of stamps & then when I actually do have to mail something I am at a loss to know whether or not I have the appropriate stamp & if I don’t then I have to scrounge around looking for 1 cent stamps – not having a clue which drawer I left them in & then giving up & going & buying a new stamp anyway – you get the picture.

So – in other words – back to the post office to buy the appropriate priced stamp. To stand in line. To wait. For ever. Again.

So did they just rip out the machine at my branch? If I took the time & precious gas to drive to another branch would there be a stamp machine or was the now-retired person in change of those machines too? And is any of this logical? Weren’t machines introduced to save on expensive human labor hours? And now, when the post office is threatening to go down to 5 days a week to save labor money, there are no machines to fill in the gap for the lack of human postal workers? Does any of this make sense????

As you can see – I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the loss of my local stamp machine. While standing. In a long line. To buy a stamp. With nothing but time to think. To ponder. To gaze nostalgically at the gaping hole in the wall where once upon an efficient, logical time a stamp machine once resided.

Penny for your insanity

Some people are feeling a kind of smug delight at the increasingly hysterical dementia of the religious right. I'm not delighted at all, nor do I count them out. In fact they thrive on persecution and so much so that they usually invent it when they can't actually provoke it.

The latest piece of insanity to arrive in my inbox seems hysterical enough, but of course it was written as a cold, calculated attempt to push the nut buttons and release another wave of irrational religious anger toward supporters of the US constitution. Nothing works quite so well for so long as the endlessly repeated threat that "They" are trying to take God off the money, where God so longs to remain.

We are due for a new series of Lincoln Cents this year, which is the year Honest Abe turned 200. The reverse side of the coin will contain scenes from different parts of his career. There will be four versions. The obverse side will remain the same as it has looked since 1909 when Victor D. Brenner designed it to replace the "Indian Head" coin to honor Lincoln's 100th. There are no plans to remove "In God We Trust."


The viral e-mail of course only shows us the plans for the reverse side, but belief addicts never ask, do they? They just believe. They just have to have the adrenaline, the feeling of belonging that believing brings. Of course we went through this with the Presidential Dollar Coin series and of course the fact that each and every coin in that series had God engraved on it never affected the beliefs of the gibbering Republican idiots who still have palpitations over the outrage. I've had shopkeepers refuse to accept them and one refused to be shown that In God We Trust was indeed there for fear, no doubt, that the Devil would drag him down to hell for looking.

The fact that the supply of attempts to restore our coinage to what it was before the Civil War when politicians needed to use religion to get people to kill their own countrymen, has long exceeded the demand and so the Liars of the Lord have to invent more. Worse, they have to heap fallacy upon fiction and invent an entire paranoid fantasy to inflame the three chambered hearts of their devotees.

It's because of the ACLU of course, along with the Atheists, the Jews, the Liberal stooges thereof -- and continuing down the slippery slope of fallacy: if they can take God away from the penny they surely will outlaw prayer in Churches, have the word God eliminated by fiat from the English language and forbid the sale of Bibles. No, I'm not making this up, they are.

Ignore them at your own peril.

Occam's butterknife

entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

Perhaps we owe it to Barak Obama that Darwin's birthday passed by without massive hysterical demonstrations attempting to prove that all species on Earth sprang into existence from thin air about 6000 years ago. Hysteria, the other mother of invention, is required since there is no evidence other than belief and all beliefs are equally possible and equally credible, as any number with zero as a factor is equal to any other. The barking and howling Republicans were too busy yesterday denying the demonstrable truth of Barak Obama's citizenship to deny the demonstrable truth of speciation through natural selection.

The amount of evidence for the proposition that Mr. Obama was born outside the USA or its possessions is nugatory and is as dependent on wishful thinking as is the evidence for "creationism." None the less, "lawmakers" in Tennessee, the former site of the only-in-America Scopes trial that proved to the world that Americans are demented idiots if not actually an atavistic subspecies, are up to something completely similar. They are insisting that our new president prove his citizenship to them by furnishing his birth certificate -- again.

Beyond the question of how one proves anything to demented idiots, is the question of why they haven't looked, as did the Supreme Court, at the evidence they are demanding: the evidence already on record and verified. His birth certificate has been furnished, verified by the Registrar of Vital Statistics and the Health Department of the State of Hawaii and by an independent group. Let me say it again: The director of Hawaii’s Department of Health confirmed Oct. 31, 2008 that Obama was born in Honolulu.

In Tennessee of course, Occam's Razor is as dull as a Republican's mind and so Republican Congressmen Eric Swafford, Stacey Campfield, Glen Casada and Frank Niceley, suspicious of a conspiracy, have agreed to join in a suit by the hilariously Orwellian sounding Defend Our Freedoms Foundation, demanding a writ of Mandamus to obtain the birth certificate that has already been obtained and immigration records which do not exist. Postulating a conspiracy of incredible proportions between the State of Hawaii, the US Supreme Court, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a legion of America hating Liberals to elect an alien president, certainly constitutes the multiplication of entities without necessity, other than the necessity to lie and cheat in order to unseat a popular President.

"Let's just put this to bed," Says Casada, who is also the chairman of the House Republican caucus.

"Yes, people may say, you're just chasing some conspiracy theory. It's a simple act on his part to just do, and we're done — move on."

People may indeed say so, even people on the Supreme Court. People may also keep lying until, by some kind of auto da fe, it becomes truth. What people ought to do, if they give a damn about their country and its future is to run these delusional, dishonest, dimwitted mystics out of the Congress and perhaps import some Chimpanzees to the State of Tennessee to improve the gene pool.

Koala Love

I’m sure most everyone who hasn’t been hiding under a rock (that’s probably everyone but Rush and Coulter) has seen the image of firefighter, Dave Tree giving Sam the koala a drink of water and comforting her during the devastating Australian fires.

What a heartwarming, humane moment in the midst of despair and destruction! And just in time for VALENTINE’S DAY (are you pulling out your hair yet, Capt. Fogg?), Sam has found a boyfriend named Bob at the wildlife center where they are both housed.

The loss of human and animal life in the area of the fires is mind numbingly tragic, from which the inhabitants will probably never fully recover. An arrest has been made and more will probably follow, but, while nothing will be able to replace the lives lost, it seems these koalas are becoming a sort of touchstone for the Australians.

So, while I’m dancing in the moonlight in the wee hours, raising my glass to the New Age and all the birthday boys and girls, I’ll lift it once more to our neighbors down under and wish them godspeed in their recovery.

THIS ONE IS FOR THE GIRLS

Like most of you, I’m forever getting those “pass them along” emails and videos and photos, etc. The ones that threaten to have a body part fall off or whatever; I delete – The others I usually look through, have a good laugh and either pass them on or delete. I mean, there is only just so much space to occupy even in cyber space.

This came in my mail last night and is way too much fun to just toss. Besides, with Valentine’s Day approaching there may be someone out there who NEEDS an alter ego for the night.

And all you guys who just can’t help yourselves (8pus) go ahead and give it a whirl; you may find your true “feminine” side!

SQUID – let me just apologize up front for the apparent sexist nature of this meme. I hope you can get by that and have a little fun with it.

So, without further ado:

YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT NEED A STRIPPER NAME
(Hey, times are tough)

Sometimes when you have a stressful day or week, you need some silliness to break up the day. And, if we are honest, we have a lot more stressful days than not.

Here is your dose of humor... (Be sure to post your new name in the comments!)

A. Follow the instructions to find your new name.

1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name:

a = Chesty
b = Fantasia
c = Star
d = Diamond
e = Montana
f = Angel
g = Sugar
h = Pinky
i = Lola
j = Kitty
k = Roxie
l = Dallas
m= Princess
n = Heidi
o = Bambi
p = Bunny
q = Brandy
r = Sugar
s = Candy
t = Raquelle
u = Sapphire
v = Cinnamon
w = Blaze
x = Trixie
y = Isis
z = Jade

2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name:

a = Leather
b = Dream
c = Sunny
d = Deep
e = Heaven
f = Tight
g = Shimmer
h = Velvet
i = Lusty
j = Harley
k = Passion
l = Dazzle
m= Dixie
n = Spank
o = Glitter
p = Razor
q = Meadow
r = Glitzy
s = sparkle
t = Sweet
u = Silver
v = Tickle
w = Cherry
x = Hard
y = 20 Night
z = Amber

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:

a = hooters
b = horn
c = tower
d = fire
e = thighs
f = hips
g = side
h = jugs
i = shock
j = cocker
k = brook
l = tush
m= sizzle
n = storm
o = kiss
p = bomb
q = cream
r = thong
s = heat
t = whip
u = cheeks
v = rock
w = hiney
x = button
y = lick
z = juice

Posted by: Heidi Heavenwhip

(CRACK! What do you think? Can you see me in white leather with angel wings? HA!)

AN OCTOPUS VALENTINE ADVENTURE

OMG, ANOTHER BIRTHDAY!

Rocky, please forgive this interruption of our Swash Zone Saint Valentine’s Day Love-Fest. Breaking news (February 11, 2009) - Today is also Sarah Palin’s 45th birthday:


Congratulations, Sarah.  We see where your political ambitions lie:

Capital One. Who's in your wallet?

Now, back to our party!

H/T to Lawyers, Guns and Money.

THE AGE OF AQUARIUS!

My friend Marc Catone (author of The Giant’s Chair and As I Write This Letter: An American Generation Remembers The Beatles), always good for an interesting and informational email several times a year has sent me a report that essentially says that the signs recorded in the famous 5th Dimension song of the same name as my title will happen on:

Feb. 14, 2009 – Valentine’s Day!

The Moon will be in Libra (the seventh house of the Zodiac) and Jupiter and Mars will be aligned (conjunct) in Aquarius along with the Sun, Neptune and Chiron also in Aquarius.

“When the moon is in the Seventh House And Jupiter aligns with Mars Then peace will guide the planets And love will steer the stars This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius..." (song lyrics)

This is apparently a very rare cosmic occurrence and, we did come close to a similar alignment in the 1960s, but the one happening this year is more so (or something like that).

There is a whole article of metaphysical explanations here by Jude Currivan, PhD if you are into that sort of thing. Me, I just love the appeal of 18 minutes of universal consciousness based on peace and love so I will reprint this invitation:

At 7.25am on 14th February and for the 18 minutes of the alignment, I invite you, in the universal heart, to add your own intention for love and peace and to co-create the dawning of the Age of Aquarius to that of the Cosmos. In whatever way feels appropriate for you, you may choose to align with 7.25am (UT) or 7.25am your own local time energizing a wave of intention that will surge around the Earth.

(Now I know that SOME of you will think it appropriate to be asleep but for those who WANT to participate, you can find a time conversion chart here).

Let the sunshine in!

Peace and Love, Rocky

The Riot Act

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity"

-Ann Coulter-

We've been hearing about the dangers of song lyrics and video games for decades and of course there's some statistical correlation, according to some researchers, between constant exposure and violent behavior. Why is it then that we're not hearing about the effects of the unrelenting barrage of furious denunciations of the various straw men set ablaze by the religious right and the political right? Why aren't we concerned about the effect on Jim Adkisson?

Dubious denunciation has been around since the Biblical prophets, but we've certainly outgrown hand copied parchment scrolls as the medium. We have blogs, we have newspapers, newsletters, e-mail; we have radio broadcasts, we have 24 hour opinion shouting by people like Michelle Malkin, Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and others. Anger, hate and bigotry can be spread faster than Smallpox and we have enough angry opinion to drown out reality. For some men like Adkisson, it's been enough to push him into domestic terrorism.

So when Jim Adkisson, an unemployed truck driver, killed two people and wounded six others with a homemade and illegal sawed off shotgun at a Tennessee church last summer, it was because he hated the "Liberals" he perceived as infesting the Unitarian Church. He still hates them so much that he smiled as he entered a guilty plea yesterday and was sentenced to life without parole.

So when Ann Coulter, for instance, proclaims a "Fathwa" against Liberals and blames everything from 9/11 to the current failure of Republican economic policy on "treasonous" Liberals in her hysterical and incessant way, when she advocates the poisoning of Federal Judges and armed assault on Islamic countries: when the American public sits mesmerized in front of Fox News and their endless fantasies about "terrorist fist bumps" and sneering, condescending and fictitious stories about "Liberals" conspiring against us all, perhaps it's time we remember the Riot Act. Perhaps it's time we saw these wealthy commercial hatemongers in the same light as we see the bearded Bogey men from Afghanistan who incite people to blow up infidels.

At least Jim Adkisson admitted his motives, even if he has no remorse.

A GHOST OF DEPRESSION PAST

(Double click on the image for a larger view)

Fellow creatures above and below the waves: We have managed to retrace the route of the Great Depression and repeat the same mistakes as if we learned nothing from history.

Marriner S. Eccles served as Franklin Roosevelt's Chairman of the Federal Reserve from November 1934 to February 1948. In his memoir, Beckoning Frontiers (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1951), he offered his opinion of what caused the Great Depression:

As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth -- not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced -- to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery.

Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.

Sound familiar? In essence, Bush's economic policies created conditions similar to those that triggered the Great Depression. From 2001 through 2007, the American economy grew by 31%, but the increase in wealth was not fairly or evenly distributed throughout the economy. After-tax income for corporate CEOs grew 40 to 400%; whereas average income for middle class wage earners declined 3% during the same period.

Factoring in rising costs of energy, food, education, and health care, which rose faster than the base inflationary rate, what do get? A middle class that can no longer serve as the engine for economic recovery. Thus, the real reason behind our economic crisis is the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many ... just like it was almost 80 years ago.

Odds and endings

Sometimes I'm overwhelmed with despair. Sometimes I don't believe the United States of America has any future in any way similar to what was envisioned in 1776. Sometimes I think civilization itself has reached the top of its arc and has begun to accelerate downward.

I was scanning around 20 meters yesterday afternoon, hoping to work KC4USV at McMurdo Station in Antarctica who was reported to be at 14.243 -- and as you might expect in this period between sunspot cycle 23 and 24, I couldn't hear a whisper from Ross Island. I did catch one Midwestern ham telling another that he'd heard thatBarak Obama had gone "over there" and told "the Muslims" that he thought it was patriotic for them to fight against infidels. " If any of that is true, this country is doomed" said the man whose call I won't repeat. Tempted as I was to have words with him, I just shut the rig down and found other things to do. Of course, none of that is or was or likely ever will be true. But this is America. Over where? What Muslims? Failure to ask is failure to think. Failure to think and the hunger to believe fills the endless cornucopia of American political dialog.

My New York Bureau chief informs me that Alabama, in the name of protecting academic freedom and science itself, has passed legislation allowing teachers to teach religious mythology or apparently, any idiotic fairy tale they damn well please about the origin of species. The Bible is now called science in Alabama. And we fought a bloody war to keep them part of our country: and we dare to talk about optimism. How can we even say the word hope.

The end of the world makes strange bedfellows though. I stumbled into Coulterwatch this morning after reading that the shrieking harpy herself has become the subject of a formal probe by Connecticut’s Elections Enforcement Commission; moving her closer to being charged with felony fraud. Can she slither out of this one as she did in Palm Beach by having one of her familiars intimidate a Commissioner into dropping the charges? Probably, but the existence of bloggers calling themselves Conservative and yet actually dedicated to bringing about justice for Ann Coulter is heartwarming.

Coulterwatch.com blogger Dan Borchers has filed a formal complaint in Connecticut.

“For over 10 years, Ann Coulter has gotten away with illegal, immoral and unethical behavior, ranging from plagiarism to defamation, perjury to voter fraud,”

says Borcher. No, it's not a glimmer of hope. He and I may disagree on most things, but at least it's comforting to think we might all hold hands for a brief moment as the ship sinks into the abyss.

Moving On From Stimuless?

My mind has been unfortunately consumed with thoughts of the economic stimulus for what feels like at least a decade. I don’t even really know what to think anymore - maybe I never did. The President didn’t do an effective enough job selling his plan to the American people early on. He should have been hitting us over the head with talk of how badly we need this package - about how it may be imperfect, but for God’s sake at least it’s something. For the second half of this week, he succeeded at doing this - often with a bit of flare the usually cool leader shies away from. And he tried for the first half of the week, but his cabinet appointments seem to have a bad habit of not paying their taxes. Since the media can’t focus on more than one thing at a time, discussion of ethics and poor accounting practices consumed the airwaves. Nonetheless, Obama tried. Plus, while the President and his party could have executed better, blame for the recovery catastrophe lies almost entirely with the Grand Old Patronizers.

The Republicans systematically undercut everything logical about this economic discussion simply because everything logical about this economic discussion came from the Democrats. They offered no ideas, save the tired ones about cutting taxes for rich people. John McCain reverted to campaign mode, complaining, “This is not a stimulus bill; it is a spending bill.” Thanks John. McCain’s concession speech after the election seemed very heartfelt. I even inquired as to whether the old McCain, the one unencumbered by political theater, would return to - wait for it - getting things done. I guess I was wrong.

I’ve championed bipartisanship, and I still believe it can work. But it is certainly more difficult than seems reasonable. Paul Krugman says there’s no room for compromise with a party that is as “irresponsible" as the GOP. I don’t want to be corrupted, I want to believe in Obama’s call for unity, but Krugman makes a good point. If the Republicans continue to obstruct to this degree in the future, and the Democrats are again outmaneuvered, then I certainly hope the Democrats are at least able to mobilize enough support to push these yahoos out of office. I firmly believe the GOP is going to remake itself as a party of moderates - if they don’t, they will die off - but in the mean time, we have a lot of serious stuff that we need to deal with. And yet the Republicans seem set on standing in the way.

Luckily, a deal on the Senate version of the recovery package seems to have been reached. It cuts a substantial amount of spending - about $100 billion - from a bill that probably didn’t have enough spending to begin with, but it's a step in the right direction. Maybe Democrats ceded too much, maybe they did the right thing. We'll have to wait to see how effective the plan ends up being. But Republicans! Seriously! You guys have got to get your act together. The economy is collapsing on all sides and the only thing you can think about is scoring political points. We cannot afford to have the battle over reconciling the two versions of the stimulus bill take this long. So GOPers...play nice. And Democrats...don't let Republicans dominant the argument - your ideas are right, you are on the right side of history. Act like it.

(I'm afraid to imagine what passing universal healthcare is going to be like.)

Death and Foxes

There's often some good to be found in our increasingly entropic economy -- like a pearl in a tainted oyster. I take comfort in the cosmic joke that is our mortal life; knowing that Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney and everyone at Fox News will go the way of Pol Pot, Nicolae Chaucescu and Madman Muntz in due time. But even before all the chips are cashed, it's good to know that News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's media empire and the parent company of Fox, is down by the bow and taking on water; nearly six and a half billion dollars worth of water, that is.

Blaming the grim economic situation, the obvious precursors of which the Fox fabricators have been denying for years whilst mocking the "Libs" for their warnings, Murdoch told the International Herald Tribune:

"While we anticipated a weakening, the downturn is more severe and likely longer-lasting than previously thought."

Who could have foreseen that? Well I for one and other, better prognosticators heard only dimly through the angry roar of the Fox filibusterers. Remember when Fox claimed that the robust economy was being "talked down" by "the Liberal Media" and offered statistics showing the "proof" in the fact that there was more bad economic news than good?

"We are implementing rigorous cost-cutting across all operations and reducing head count where appropriate."

said Murdoch, and of course I have a list of candidates for decapitation, but before we get to feeling smug, the bad news in the good news in the bad news, is that amidst the general Murdoch meltdown, Fox News itself reported income of $428 million, which is up $91 million from the previous year. Fox News increased its operating income by 32 percent. Is this also a reflection of a desperate America's increased thirst for lies, damn lies and hysterical hatred? I'm sure that when the statisticians stop chewing on the news, we'll find that alcohol consumption has risen by a similar amount.

In any event, I'm sure that the global meltdown will some day fade into redacted and ill remembered history, but I'm not so sure about the United States of America as we know it. America is failing, Fox News is why.

Et evasi ego solus ut nuntiarem tibi.

RUSSIA UNSEEN: A PHOTO ESSAY

Photo Essay by Aleksey (Alexander) Petrosian

Here is another side of Russia rarely seen in our media - dingy, grim, and neglected.  It reminds us that Russia is still in many ways a poor nation burdened by its Soviet past and struggling to find a future.   Worth a look.   Click here.

Sexist Sex

Oh, for goodness sake.

A short while ago I checked my aol email account & was greeted on aol's home page by the trivial celebrity headline of the day. Apparently some female celebrity (never heard of her) is pregnant and - oh wait! - HERE'S THE JUICY PART! - she's unmarried! Wow!

Good grief, I thought. Who the heck cares? Now - part of my grumbling is due to a free-floating irritation with our celebrity saturated culture. But the other part of my grumbling has to do with the sexist, holier than thou gasping nature of the headline over the fact that she is unmarried.

This is a new concept? Single, unwed motherhood? Public figure unwed single motherhood? Remember the broohaha over the Murphy Brown pregnancy about which Dan Quayle so famously (stupidly) opined? At the time the issue was forced into open discussion as a public debate erupted over the definition of family, over the puritanical shaming of women "caught pregnant" out of wedlock, etc. That was over a decade ago but apparently we have not moved on from our gasping at such news - at least in the media driven, sensation generating headlines of pop culture.

And dare I ask the question? Where is the headline about the father of this soon to be born child? Just once I would like to see a headline gasping out the words - HOLLYWOOD CELEB JOHN SMITH IS GOING TO BE A FATHER BUT HE'S UNMARRIED! or better yet - HOLLYWOOD CELEB JOHN SMITH HAS IMPREGNATED HIS GIRLFRIEND!

If we are going to insist on puritanical, sensational headlines to fuel our pop culture appetite then we can at least stop being so sexist about it. Let's at least strive for an egalitarian approach to our puritanical shaming.

On a final note - I actually don't think that all that many people (the RIGHT excepted) care that much about the fact that this celebrity is unmarried & pregnant. What I do find fascinating, however, is that the media continually tries to play on old puritanical ideas of shaming to generate sensation about the story they are trying to sell. The extent to which we are suckers for this is debatable.

Hello Swash Zone Readers!

(O)CT(O)PUS has graciously extended an invitation to me to join the team here. My name is Brian Krenz, and I come by way of The Political Panorama where I have been blogging for a little over three months. Since beginning to explore the seemingly infinite space of the blogging universe I have stumbled on The Swash Zone several times and come to appreciate the insight the writers here have to offer. I hope I can contribute with the same sort of thought-provoking acumen.

I look forward to hearing from and interacting with all of you in the time ahead.

A quick thanks to The Swash Zone team for offering me this opportunity. It’s good to be aboard.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

About who to blame and who shall pay for the economic crisis, it seems Wall Street is hell-bent on spinning the debate to favor itself. Lawyers, Guns & Money nails it with this headline:

Socialism for me but not for thee

Here is the reaction from Wall Street as reported by the New York Times:

“I think President Obama painted everyone with a broad stroke,” said Brian McCaffrey, 55, a Wall Street lawyer who was on his way to see a client. “The way we pay our taxes is bonuses. The only way that we’ll get any of our bailout money back is from taxes on bonuses. I think bonuses should be looked at on a case by case basis, or you turn into a socialist.”

That, indeed, was a recurring equation: Broad strokes + bonuses = socialist.

And here is Jim Cramer yesterday on MSNBC (February 2, 2009):



Here is the same Jim Cramer last year:

Just for once, Jim, shut the fuck up!

Socialism for Wall Street.  Socialism for corporate America.  Or as one LG&M commenter put it (NonyNony):  American style "capitalism" is all about privatizing profits and socializing losses.  But what about American taxpayers who will be shouldering this burden for a generation?  Don’t ask. That’s socialism.

Update (11:00 am):  Apropos of this subject, I recommend this article at TruthDig (complements of Calliegirl).

Not EXACTLY Peaceful Protest…

Seems shoe throwing has become the new symbol of international protest. A human rights protester apparently had enough of listening to the Chinese prime minister as he spoke at Cambridge University.

After shouting, "How can you listen to this unchallenged?" Or something similar, the man removed his shoe and threw it. The Iraqi journalist was a much better shot, this guy didn’t even come close, but he got his point across.

Funny, though how the mind performs associations. What this brought to mind was an incident I was sort of involved in during 6th grade.

I was part of the 6th grade all town chorus which drew from all the schools in the town for a performance for some event I can no longer recall. We met in a central location under the tutelage of the high school music director, affectionately known as Old Lady Humphreville.

Now, standing to my right was a kid named Manny who was a bit of a cut up. During practice he would poke me and whisper stuff and I would hit him and tell him to shut up, all the while watching Ms. H. who would turn and stare at us. After this happened a few times, without warning – SHE TOOK OFF HER HIGH HEEL AND LOBBED IT AT MANNY! Hit him square in the forehead, fortunately not with the heel.

These days, I’m sure she would have been arrested, as both this protester and the Iraqi journalist before him were. The Iraqis had a large bronze shoe sculpture for a few days but the government made them take it down. Even so, this could be the start of an interesting new trend.