Contemporary politics is lacking an instinct

I've you've ever heard someone say politics is boring, they're refering to policy.

If they say its too loud, mean, or rough, thats politics.

Today I feel like a Roman, reimagining a Greece that was everything I wanted it to be. Despite my political leanings, I've never been soemone to be partisan. I love Nixon. I think if theres any figure in American politics we can go to, well-like and constantly come back with great things to discuss and debate, he's the man we should look to.

Today everythings grade school insults and whisper campaigns. The arguments aren't logical to the adults in the room. Obama was a secret Muslim? McCain would die in office? Its not the ruthlessness of it all that upsets me, I encourage that. What bothers me is the lack of effort, the unrealisticness of it all. Today's political strategy is energize the marginalized fringe of your base. And hope what? That they purify the party so people ask to be included?

Theres no back room deals or run up to the convention any more. 2008 was the best election cycle we've seen in quite sometime. Upsets all over the map. McCain delared DoA until people actually voted. Huckabee coming out of no where in Iowa. Obama takes Iowa, loses NH, picks up SC, loses super tuesday, comes back with 11 strait victories on a sleeping Clinton.

The bloodbath was phenominal. And now we're dead in the water. Glen Beck has a succesful show. And he's just rambling.

Yes.

He's just rambling. I can't tell if the SNL parody's are a direct lift.

I want a superstar. I want to be impressed again. Some one call up the ghost of FDR, and get me megaphone. I need to get to Washington soon. I used to want to go because I loved the city and the sport. Now I think it just needs me.

CNN - Wake Up

from The New York Times


I don't know if CNN is asleep at the wheel or what but in a NYT's article about Lou Dobb's abrupt departure Jonathan Klein, president of CNN, said the following...

“Lou has now decided to carry the banner of advocacy journalism elsewhere.” This comes directly after an offer the NYT's is reporting as "Mr. Dobbs could vent his opinions on radio and anchor an objective newscast on television, or he could leave CNN."

My bone to pick here isn't with the supposed objectivity of CNN, but what they consider objective. Its as if their following the Larry King model for the entire network; don't cover stories or hold people accountable, but just ask questions and say nothing to avoid being accused of partisanship.

My big issue with CNN on the whole is that its nothing more than fluff stories we're used to from local news on a National level, and a constant citing of opinions from Facebook, Twitter, and e-mails. I love Jack Cafferty, but he can't be the game plan for an entire 24 hour news network.

I think Lou Dobbs is a moron. It was formulaic journalism at its best; immigration issues + angry journalist = ratings. He was an oppertunistic hack and the worst kind but he was at least an opinion on a network where Wolf Blitzer is the most aggressive journalist, and where Anderson Cooper is ritualistically lampooned by the Daily Show for ignoring issues to cut away to stories about dogs. Whether you like the leftist comedy news or not, you have to agree that stories of that nature are best suited for the late night talk show circuit and shouldn't be on Cable News before midnight.

Why CNN continues to go to the well of social media is beyond me. The only rational, albeit bad, idea I can come up with is that when all the fabricated or inflated talk was written the epitath of "dinosaur media," CNN must have come to the idea that drafting off social media would save it...

As President Reagan used to say - work the difference. For those counting, the difference will never be the internet. Every idiot with a keyboard (indlucing myself) has an opinion and an outlet. I don't want to watch CNN to see whats on the internet, thats why I have an internet subscription.

The reason I watch Hardball as my source of news is because I learn things, and Matthews is someone who, with the backing of history and policy, doesn't allow people to get away with bullshit. So why is this such a foreign concept to the top office at CNN? Even Bill O'Reilly at Fox is an example of what CNN should be looking for. In short, theres nothing wrong with an opinion. In fact, CNN showcases them all the time from guys like Crazyhair13 and SnoopDogFanboi, but why not have someone on air, with a spine and a brain who can challenge people.

Because at the end of the day, the news shouldn't be about sharing gossip, it ought to be about clearing the air so people can form their own opinions. Watching MSNBC I've become more of a conservative than I have if I'd ahve watched Fox. I needed something to bounce my opinions off of, and when you have someone who's willing to go to the mat to get to the root of an issue, you can only benefit.

Now if only there was a "like" button for cable news shows...

Healthcare Again

As I read another article on how, in the developed world, America finishes last again. I'm sure this is called America hating but you need to work to make something the best, not just sit on your ass and say you're great. I've worked with too many people who operated that way, its just not me.

So I had to wonder why the republicans would sit by and not attempt to fix anything. 9 months after screaming "no" the republicans finally cook up a bill that covers less people and costs more. Why they thought, in 9 months they could build something as good as a bill 60 years in the making I don't know, but thats neither here nor there.

I think the reason this bill was opposed so heavily is because in 1994, the destruction of such a bill lead to a 12 year dominance for Republicans. Except John Boehner is no Newt Gingrich, and theres nothing close to the "Contract with America" on the table - that every republican can run on. Actually, the Republican party now is not only ununified, its in open rebellion.

I think Cantor probably went behind clsoed doors and did the historical math and realiezed 1 and 1 isn't 3, the republican party isn't going to duplicate its success in '94 with the exact opposite stratagy. And looking at where it was, what it does, and where its going the conservatieves, not the republicans, are winning the party.

For one thing Republicans are generally unparalleled on discipline. They don't get off message, they have a sort of hive-mind that allows small gaffes and missteps to be exploited to a maximum capacity. This, obviously, it right out the window in 2009. For one reason or another, this leftist mentality of party purity like we experienced in the 60's has come, in full force to the republican party. We've also seen a tremendous amount of "front group" use by the neo-cons who are simultaneously ousted from power but who remain the loudest voices in the public eye. Something Ellesworth Tooey would have been proud of (or pissed about because of plagerism).

Secondly, the republican party has, very appropriatly, had a long memory on many things. Not least of which is the 40th president of the U.S. But today their forgetting his 11th commandment, his revolution that lead to the '94 victory, and the unity that Gingrich brought to the table with universal position on policy through his contract with America.

Healthcare, it was said by Roger Ailes (i think), cannot be allowed to pass because it will forever hand the democrats votes from the impoversed. He's kinda right. It would forever give them the votes of a generation, but with a National Policy on healthcare, the impoversed would at least have the same economic oppertunities and thusly few would remain impoversed for long.

As a conservative who wants Healthcare, I had to go down to the crossroads and figure out why I was so passionate about it in my gut, even if it didn't make sense with regard to liberties. But ultimatly it makes the world a more hands off place, one in which everyone can afford the same oppertunities because the cost of ailments born or aquired are no longer a hunderence.

And ultimatly thats the point I'm going for. I don't care where people start or finish economically - I'm a man born fighting and can only respect those ruthless enough to take what they want. I believe thats only valid if the oppertunity to fight is there. If you can't afford your bills because you bought a $30,000 car then thats your problem.

If you can't afford your bills because you have cancer and in the end it costs $30,000 then thats unamerican. Keep fighting the good fight friends. We'll have the power soon enough.

Heavyweight Fight

I'm not much for how people "feel." Thats what Compassionate Conservatism has never appealed to me. Its also why religion has no place in politics. Jesus makes everyone too touchy feely. If you don't like something, bitch about it at your pancake breakfast.

I incorrectly called Prop 1 in Maine, but Maine has incorrectly chossen a side of history. Like Alabama before it, hopping on the supressive side of liberty never fares well for a national reputation and as a New Englander, this is gravely disappointing.

Its not disappointing because gay people want to love each other. Its not disappointing because as a society we're saying thats wrong. As I say, I don't really care much for how people feel emotionally. Its disappointing because equal protection under the law (the 14th amendment...of the U.S. Constitution) is being spit on.

No state shall ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Either you're an American, and you get the rights, or you don't get the rights. Its fair to say that in many cases - there is no equal protection under the law.

Let's be direct about this - the 14th doesn't allow gay marriage. If you want to deny marriage to homosexual couples feel free, but you then must deny rights to all marriage couples. That is after all equal.

So why aren't the pro-equality forces playing hardball? Why aren't we calling out the Maine folks for being as hateful as segregationalist southerns 50 years back? Why aren't we making the claim that they have garner themselves and this nation with a black mark?

As MLK once said "all we say to America is be true to what ya said on paper. If I lived in China, or even Russia or any totalitarian country maybe I could understand...[denial of right] (the rights denied in each situation are different)...because they haven't committed themselves to that over there. but somewhere I read about the Freedom of Assembly, somewhere I read about the Freedom of Speech, somewhere I read about the Freedom of Press, somewhere I read that the "greatness of America is the right to protest the right."

Some of those are directly appopriate (obviously) but the spirit of his message is exactly on point. If the Constitution means something, then this will not stand. Maine has decided today that the American Constitution doesn't work for them, and they've denied it. I hope the pro-equality forces will keep in mind the next portion of that final speech as they carry on..."And just as I say we aren't gunna let any Dogs or Firehoses turn us around, we aren't gunna let any In-junction turn us around."

The man gave that speech with a fever and stomach pains. The things he spoke out against were vicious and vulgar. Our fight is cleaner, but our want should be no less. The civility of this nation has come along way. We can't give up on its founding documents now just because no ones being picked off in the street. Pro-equality forces had better start sharpening their elbows and learn a thing or two about hardball because if you play clean in politics you're just waiting for someone to come do your work for you.

Follow Up:

And this is exactly what I'm talking about. As taken from the website of the National Organization for Marriage.

"Language to avoid at all costs: "Ban same-sex marriage." Our base loves this wording. So do supporters of SSM. They know it causes us to lose about ten percentage points in polls. Don’t use it. Say we’re against “redefining marriage” or in favor or “marriage as the union of husband and wife” NEVER “banning same-sex marriage.”"

Click the link, read the "talking points." They know they can't call what they are asking for by its true function because they loose votes.

a rapidly expanding universe

I'm not sure where I'm going in many aspects of my life, and therefore its almost impossible for me to know if I'm in the right place currently, doing the right things, or moving at the right speed.

I'd like to believe I fight as hard and, for better or worse, fairly ruthlessly in all aspects of whatever it is I'm doing, but I've got quite some time on my hands when I ride the bus home at night, staring out the windows to avoid eye contact with the disgruntled white-collars and out into that day-light savings time darkness that still seems too early to me.

I'm running down a few paths right now. School this spring (1 econ class but whatever), i'm still taking the MTEL's, and I'd really like to get a few certs in some tech crap that sounds nice on resumes. Another political season has come to a close (my candidate lost so I'm 1 and 1 now) but the big run up to 2010 is all but here. Time to go scout that field again.

I guess I'm writing to say I'm lost and by this paragraph I assumed I'd find something out but I didn't. I'm half thinking it might be a good idea to just roll the dice, start from scratch and call it a life. Too much of what I'm doing now is because I believe I'm on track to all the success I've always wanted.

I don't want to take up this pie-in-the-sky ideology as if I was cast in American Beauty, but maybe i'd be happier being myself again. Maybe I'm still pretending I'm not home whenever the idea of loneliness comes knocking.

I don't generally quote Billy Joel, but I think I need to forget about life for awhile.

Thomas Jefferson; Renegade Genius

Reddit has me digesting quotes faster than I can refresh the page but I thought I'd post some of my favorites...

"Shake off all the fears and servile prejudices under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear." --Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1787. ME 6:258 Papers 12:15

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country. -Thomas Jefferson, 1812

"Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment... laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind... as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, institutions must advance also, to keep pace with the times.... We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain forever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

"I sincerely believe... that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:23

"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens."

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."

Real Yankee Fury: Rebellion comes to the Motherland

The same forces responsible for Proposition 8 in California in 2008 have made their way into the very depths of Vactionland and are now trying to repeal the rights of homosexual unions by way of referendum. I'll make my call up front. The bright spot that was Prop 8 in 2008 is going to be eclipsed in 2009 and its highly likely that the backlash starts in Maine.

For one thing, anti-gay forces have used the same consulting firm, and the same message they did in California - which explicitly cites "the homosexual agenda already being taught in Massachusetts."

For obvious reasons, that plays differently in CA than it will in ME because I'm betting these west coast foreigners don't realize how tightly knit New England is. I suspect they also don't know how vicious the gay community is going to be over what they saw as a sandbagging in California, and if you don't think money won't pour in from all over the country think again.

Homosexuals have often been refered to as D.I.N.K.s - Double Income, No Kids. They stereotypically are big city liberals with at least one member of the house hold occupying a 6 figure income. This is now being presented in direct competition with heartland values, and more pointedly heartland paychecks. The chances that Maine will overturn their vote are growing increasingly slimmer. The Media likes to use the term “galvanized” for what Prop 8 did to the LGBT community, but that’s a “safe for television, objective” word, and what’s closer to the truth is they’ve furious for the past 11 months that they are being devalued as humans and Americans.

So what else doesn’t Schubert Flint Public Affairs, the firm representing the anti-gay proposition, understand about where they are doing battle? Politics.

California might be an exposed state, on camera, high profile, exciting. But Maine is, as Mark Steyn always refers to them, crotchety (he would, he’s a NH resident). They vote for who they want, and what they want, and they very much don’t like outsiders sticking their nose in its business. Just to give you an idea of who Mainers are; Lower 3 plates (Ma, Ri, and Ct) are routinely pulled over, the locals find us arrogant, mean, and we’re within 1 border. They also use the term “from away” to refer to anyone who’s ever had residency outside of the State. Meaning if you weren’t born there, you’re “from away” and no length of time repeals that idea. Maine also refers to some of their own as “Down Easters” (not sure if it’s one word) to denote where the rich folks of the state live.

They are, for the most part, highly resistant to outside influence. And unlike in MA (correct me if I’m wrong), in Maine Gay Marriage was a bill presented to the state legislature. It was signed by an elected Governor. There was no unilateral move to “force” gay marriage on the people of Maine. If its going to be repealed they want that to be up to them and I can put hard money on the fact that these outsiders are going to been shown to be the same crop from California, and that’s going to go horribly wrong for the anti-gay forces out there.

As it stands, I believe only 1 New England state does not allow Gay Marriage to happen, and that’s Rhode Island. The walls are coming down fairly consistently for a couple of reasons.

For one thing, Big City conservatives tend to be fiscal conservatives with more of a libertarian streak than a social/compassionate conservative bent. They don’t feel “saving” marriage is a big issue, and as die-hard free market people, the monetary output of legal gay marriage is both lucrative and befitting their deregulatory philosophies.

Secondly, all sides are on board now. This seems like a Liberal issue, but the reality is, on this one at least, Liberals are holding fast to Constitutional precedents, and how this mess began was Big Government Republicans attempting to regulate Morality.

It doesn’t fit Reagan-ites to use the government to regulate things like morals, and you know damned well the democrats didn’t do this.

The fight is going to be filthy. I don’t think, even if I’ve presented it that way, that it’s going to be a cake walk. But the homosexual community is more than likely seething, prepped for battle against the exact same group who made them second class citizens in, of all places, California.

Best of Luck to my Yankee brothers up in North Country. We always did know how to throw a revolution, I hope and expect that won't change now.

My review of Knockemstiff

“if I wanted to read books I liked I’d have been a math major, and I’d have read at home.”

Ian was a man made for books, and like everyone I’ve known, he had a piece of him I admired. His was a patience and a discipline to read through the worst of novels with an analytic mind, giving a more due credit to books than I ever could.

Life can be about overcoming obstacles, and how you go about doing it. Mine, in this case, is the bus. Required for transit, good for little else save for being a roving flu box that spreads a pandemic like gas on a fire. But it does force me to read. There’s no one to speak to, and it prevents me from being approached by vagrants and street-corner salesman.

I’m a man of non-fiction. I love reading political material or at the very least analytical pieces. But I force myself into fiction because it’s good to tackle something from all angles, even if one of those angles is only 10% of your total. Fast forward to me reading Knockemstiff. I wanted to finish it so badly so that my review would pack more of a punch, that maybe I could cite decent strokes of the pen, or great plot directions…

But Knockemstiff for all its many sub-stories, for its umbrellas reach over a small county in Southern Ohio can be summed up thusly: Faulkner’s first book from 8th grade, when he realized he could write profanity and still get an A.

Downtrodden people, dead end lives, and the assumed correlation between grotesque situations and good writing. That’s the only theme I can see marching down Pollock’s deranged Main Street. That somehow, if we have some physical representation of something horrible and revolting, then we’ve perfectly summed up a character and thusly have written well.

Before you assume I just can’t handle the heat, let me explain why I took such issue with it, and moreover why I don’t recommend you buy it.

For one thing the vulgar discourse is on just about every page. It’s so ever present that by the time you get past the last trucker/hitchhiker tranny rape scene, you’re knee deep in a man marching in his own diarrhea by some dick-headed cops in some rich snobby town. And that’s, I assume, a subtle outlier as well. This is social commentary at its most inexperienced and juvenile. You can almost hear the inner teenager complain about some social ill, but do nothing but drag it out to hyperbole to prove a point, and never look in the direction of a solution.

The other issue is I’m not sure if he wants to be Faulkner (he does) or Salinger. Scenes where a newly homeless man takes refuge in a rusted-out landmark of a car, and for an ending to this story, he finds in the car the small skull of a mouse that an owl, who is thought to inhabit the car, has likely killed. The scene closes with this man putting the skull in his mouth.

I’m sure if you liked Knockemstiff you’re offended that I’m painting all of this out of context. If so, you’re probably smarter than I am, please explain this to me. I think if anything, the book serves to keep people out of Southern Ohio which, having never been, doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

Thank God for Ctrl + F

Sorry. I was locked up for a bit there because I needed to keep the internet snoops out of my business. The situation should have been rectified, and having driven off enough of them, I ought to be back writing sooner and more frequently.

All the best,
Brow

A plead to reason

Dear WFNX,

I grew up on the South Coast in Taunton, MA. Being a child of 1982, we didn't see the sunny shore of your radio station until maybe 2001, give or take a year or two. In fact the fact the first time I heard you guys was your late night techno slot when I was driving up to Methuan to meet up with friends. So you can imagine my excitement when Jaxon and the Pharmacist hit Rhode Island and we could get the station. I've since moved up to the Boston area and get to enjoy FNX on its traditional 101.7 setting and until WBCN went under, I couldn't have been happier with you guys.

But its fairly apparent you bought their playlists whole sale and threw them into constant rotation. I don't know if you have Cruise as your program director again or picked up Edipus somewhere along the lines, but for the love of God, stop playing the BCN 1997 playlist. I finally finagled a radio for my office and what am I met with? Linkin Park? Lenny Kravitz? LENNY KRAVITZ? Lenny wasn't cool when his shit was new. I really don't know whats stopping you from whipping out the Kid Rock and Trapt catalogue.

I don't mean in any way to disparige Julie Kramer or the Sandbox, which I love equally, but honestly what the hell? I remember a time when Storm Zbel played the Detroit Grand Pumba's "Sandwiches." That song still disturbs me to this day, but you know what? I don't listen to FNX because its safe when my grandmothers around, I listen to FNX so i can be a snarky douche at parties with phrases like "I like their first EP better" or "their ripping off [obscure useless band]." But I can't do that because if I try that crap with Green Day and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (has no one learned antyhing from BCN's death or are you drafting off of BOS) i get lumped in with the oldies in the corner talking about how Nirvana saved them from 80's power ballads.

To be fair, you're playing Owl City and Matt & Kim so I know your soul's still there, but for gods sake, if it costs to much to hire a DJ for portions of your day, I'll come down there and play songs for free. Please help us out. I left the South Coast to be closer, and now I'm too far away to get WBRU in.

In Loving Snark,
[Me]

Is Wikipedia good for the National psyche?

I get to spend a lot of time with people. Not always speaking with them, but as a commuter, you're just around them constantly. In this situation, you can't forget people all have their pet interests, and they're going to tell you about them whether you're listening or not.

In this regard, Wikipedia might be the e-zanax this country needs.

The site takes its knocks for being unreliable, constantly changeable by any fringe group of nuts with an agenda. That true, but if you're going to Wikipedia for information on World War II, presidential administrations in the last 100 years, or science thats your own damn fault.

Wikipedia was made for the pet topic. Lets just look at the possible sales pitch, "debate the minutia of semi-colons, sea chantys from pre-1880, and the darning of socks with others who are prepared to get into the historial blood match that is [your pet topic]."

And there it is. The outlet to blather your insignificant interests into. And I have to believe the site knows this. Drop by the front page and you'll have riveting topics handed to you such as...

The Byzantine navy

Japanese settlement in Palau

or

Wilfred Buckland

And because of this, it bothers me when people say its unreliable.

"people can just go in and EDIT!"

I can't imagine how bored you'd need to be to edit anything related to the Byzantine Navy, but who am I to say. Maybe someones pet issue is complaining about how unrealiable Wikipedia is, and maybe they engage in self-preservation.

Novels have been written about stranger characters.

thoughts on life # 7621

it should be known, before you think the worst of me, that I've never been a woman, and therefore cannot comment on them in the same way

There comes a time in everyone’s man's life when chaos envelops everything. You believe people see you as crazy or inept from some occurrence of events, you believe other people are lying or crazy because their telling you they don't know what you mean.

I couldn't tell you what the answer to those moments are, but what’s always served me best is to come to the table and give every side something. Yes, you made mistakes and exposed a weakness in the armor, but don't always give your opponents credit. More often than not they aren't even looking. If you think about it, we're all running around like mad, hiding our own exposures or chasing our own goals and making opportunities to achieve them.

Its only in the mad grip of obsession when we can start to smell the blood of those who've wronged us. And more often than not, those people will expose themselves as wounded by their own hands or admission. In these cases, silence will never serve you better, even if the accusations or slander is in our face. Sometimes, letting them say what you are shows who they are. People will hear, in the absence of truth and reason, the cutting words of a bitter man who couldn't take his lumps in life, and instead blamed everyone else. It’s been my experience that people see, at those times, attacks and think of themselves and their own interests and can reason that any man who'd say that to someone is capable of saying it to them.

Part of running a tight ship, be it an actual ship or a business, is walking the delicate line between knowing when to address something, when to let it address itself, and when to admit defeat but carry on. In all things though, if a man cannot be honest with himself, if he rationalizes, then his ship will go down in flames while he convinces himself that there’s a draft in his cabin.

Nixon, Rudy, and the Rebirth and Rise of a smarter GOP.

The New York Times reports today that Rudy Guiliani is considering a strong run for the Governorship of New York State, and while Cathy's probably going to kick me in the mouth for saying so, I couldn't be more thrilled.

One of the more fun things about getting good at the political game is seeing how things in the background are being set-up to shape the future 5 to 10 years on. And while most of the pundits are crowing about an increasingly neo-con right wing, they’re only focusing on the Legislature. Its true there aren’t many republicans left in the Upper Right states, but with the moderation of national Republican figures the GOP is poised for a nationwide rebirth 5 to 10 years down the line. That is to say, if the Republican’s get obliterated in 2012 like they are on course to, the party will fall to Charlie Christ, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and, if he wins, Rudy Giuliani.

Say what you will about his hard stance on foreign policy and his alignment with the Hawks – that’s never stopped a young voter from choosing the GOP. Most people can understand through the lens of history that war is ugly, but certainly necessary at times. Despite what lasting image the 60’s peace movement has left, the ugly specter of Hitler casts a longer shadow and Giuliani won’t be penalized for a war he thought was needed. No, Rudy will take rank on two things that happened well before 9/11 – his stance on crime, and his stance on homosexuals.

The one thing the legislators can’t really do in the House of Congress is be results based. The New York City crime rate, according to the most consistent statistic, dropped a mythic 69% under the Giuliani Administration at a time when it (the city) was considered ungovernable. This is, in modern political trade, on par with the feats of Hercules in that its one of the few times a politician actually fulfilled the good-time promises of the euphoria of campaign season. For those not fortunate enough to be in the Upper Right, NYC – where Giuliani was elected twice – is the most Liberal portion of the state. If not for Manhattan, New York might be a swing state. And given the Democrats recently…”follies” its not very hard to see how Rudy might start taking on some Rudy qualities.

But some of you may be thinking, “Hey, Brow, I don’t live in NY. Who cares?” Fair point, but Giuliani’s win, should it come, would mean while the numbers in the Congress dwindle, the parties standing within the country starts to improve. And nowhere is this more important than outside of the Bible Belt where over the course of the last few years the GOP has been taking a beating, dropping long held Republican bastions to the Democratic Party. In the 90’s it was California, this decade it seems to be Florida.

In case that sounds crazy to you, and for someone like me who was born in 1982, it should. Lets take a look at California, long considered “Liberal Land” by many of the far rights biggest voices. Prior to Clinton, the GOP lost California in 1964 only when the social climate and a weak opponent (Goldwater) allowed LBJ to carry something like 42 of the 50 states. Its hard to say which state gave in quickest. California stuck with Ford when Florida voted Carter. Florida stuck with Bush, when CA finally went a permanent shade of blue. Either way – it’s a certainty they’ve been Republican Strong holds. But in the 2000 election, Florida faltered and the election results still aren’t agreed upon by the ideological extreme wings. 2004’s results we’re likely a result of the last being uncertain, but in 2008 Florida went, and given its demographic its tough to say if it won’t revert. If its going to, the question is: Who in the GOP is going to take it? As of right now, that seems to be directed at the GOP, as in who amongst you will take up the gauntlet?


But don’t be surprised if the Democrats have their flanks turned on them. While the whole country is waiting for the results of the Palin/Romney death match, with a possible Jindal or Pawlenty emerging from that ruckus as the Dark Horse candidate. But if Giuliani takes the Governorship up in New York, Florida may be taken by a future Republican Party of a more Moderate flavor. In short – Eisenhower, not Reagan, may be the key to a continued dominance of the Sunshine State.

Lets look ahead at some of the math, as it stands now. Depending on the health care debate, the 2010 elections could go either way, but as is customary in the mid-terms, the Republicans will probably pick up some seats. By the time 2012 comes, the economy will be the biggest factor. If it improves Obama will walk in, if it fails he’s got no shot. Its really that simple. Regardless of what major factor is taking place there, that’s going to be the issue at hand. Jobs, which are the largest lagging indicator, will be in full swing then and that’s going to be the most enduring test of the President.

Given the current climate of the GOP right now, the thought that McCain lost because he wasn’t conservative enough still has a firm grip on the party. Malkin and Coulter haven’t made room for Steve Schmidt and Megan McCain at this point, so the voices are still rallying to the right. Hannity and Beck have formed an impressive tag team that’s likely going to keep the party on course, but if it fails (and it likely will) we’re going to awake in 2012 in a world completely different than we know now.

The democrats, having won enough to warrant it, will drift leftward, leaving a middle open for courting. If the blue states start presenting high-profile republicans, that are in positions to be results based (and generally do, when the opposite faction controls the Executive they often can only work.) you’re likely going to see the moderation return to the Senate.

I don’t know if the moderation scares or entices you, but the writings on the wall. The one thing this country cannot afford is a lack of options. To have the Republican Party represent mostly southern white voters is not an option.

As a finisher I’ll say this, I didn’t include it in my general math because it could be a whole lot of nothing, but recently it was said that the third biggest city in America is about ready to switch from Chicago to Houston. The presence of a major city in one of America’s most conservative states may prove to be pretty interesting 20 years on. With Austin already a liberal enclave, if Houston slowly turns as many cities do. You may see a strong Democratic presence emerge from Texas in time for the 2032 elections.

Health Care or whats wrong with the president?

While I'm a registered independent, when it comes to healthcare I'm Democrat Blue all the way. And i feel I need to weigh in at this point, if only to keep score, so that the 3 people who read this infrequent mouthpiece can throw their support where its needed, if they should choose to do so.

In the middle of august in the first year of the Obama administration, the democrats at this point are trying to walk back the public option, the republicans and freedomworks (led my former majority leader dick army) are equating insurance reform with "tyranny" and it looks as if the liberal democrats are the only ones trying to salvage this bill from the watery grave of compromise which is looking more and more like its going to do nothing but keep the status quo that kills 20,000 Americans every year.

Maybe its paranoia, but if the Republicans win this one are the insurance companies going to be drunk with power and inflate prices on a regular basis? More so than they’ve been doing?

Lets start from the beginning here. This started off with the stimulus fight. Not the bill, the fight. The president took from that bill that he shouldn't lead with compromise, he should let the Senators put things like tax cuts in so they can take credit for something, give them a bargaining chip, and find the bill at compromise later. But he took the wrong lesson from that.

For all the president admires the legacy of Reagan, he should have taken this one lesson from the gipper, and every haggle you've ever been in on; Highball 'em. Its not hard to see how you could walk back a single-payer system to a public option and be where we should be both morally and governmentally (meaning not too much gov. intervention). Instead he took from the stimulus debate that he should do nothing but request a bill and let them hash it out in Congress. Ever the good sport that Obama is.

But as we know at this point, he's been getting hammered for not having specifics. Another argument for the idea that presidents should go for broke. In 1981 then President Reagan demanded a 30% tax cut down the line. He ended up getting 25%. See how that works? If he'd gone in asking for a compromise of 15%, he'd had been lucky to get 5% and he'd have ruined any chance to revive the economy. But at this point its spilt milk.

The President at the time of my writing this has 3 options at this point.

1. Let the bill fail and purge from congress the representatives that should have listened harder to their constituencies. This is a gamble but if he looks at the numbers and sees a punishing result for the blue dogs who can't get the job done, it may not be a bad solution. They're only benefit at this point has been to give the Democrats a majority, but not let them pass any meaningful legislation. You can bank hard on an economic resurgence and in a year from now and ride it to a new, less resistant democratic base.

2. Get something watered down. This is what the republicans want. It will ruin the administration. Its not worth mentioning what it might do since the list carries on and on but lets just say the people won't benefit from this one and therefore, neither will either political party.

3. Reconciliation. Not even sure its legal. Will most likely be worse than 2.

Obama says he's walked back from the public option (according to Chuck Todd) because even those who supported it didn't know what it was and if the phrase of "public option" was hanging things up, we can remove it. But the Public Option is something that we need because for those who can't afford to eat and buy their medication.

In 1910 Churchill said we should judge a country by the way it treats its Prisoners. He should know, he was POW during the Boers War. It was an argument then, about how a society should treat its most vulnerable and underprivileged sect. Modern American Prisoners have a better healthcare system than more of the working poor, and in many cases better living conditions. Today our most vulnerable people are the families that work 3 or 4 jobs amongst two parents and are struggling to feed people, and praying that no one gets so sick they need real care.

Its been nearly 80 years since the first proposed health care system was left out of the Social Security bill, and at countless times along the way presidents from both sides of the aisle have attempted to get something done. The forces against us can often be ourselves, and senators and congressmen have long been just as guilty as private insurers. But the concerns today aren't all out of line or ridiculous; will this fund abortions? Are illegal aliens covered? What is all this "end of life counseling" about?

The republicans are suggesting a mandate, similar to what Nixon proposed, and almost exactly like what we've got here in MA, but the costs keep rising. Its braking the bank and if it isn't stopped a mandate will only serve to punish the poor or make them choose between Healthcare and food. (same problem only reversed because of government interference)

There have been concerns that the protesters at rallies aren't really protesting healthcare for any real reason. Concerns that the government will overthrow the country via healthcare. That Obama is taking gun rights, and that he's not a native born citizen. But the concern I can't shake was a free 8-day clinic in Inglewood California where doctors came to give free care to teh first 18,000 people that showed up. Depending on our political prism you’re either looking to see how many people worked full time, or how many were homeless. I guess one would show the difference between need and want but what I noticed was this:

from the larger article "...Over the eight days, dentists extracted 2,200 teeth, completed almost 5,500 fillings and performed nearly 2,000 cleanings. Nearly 1,800 pairs of eyeglasses were made and 400 women received mammograms." (http://www.dailybreeze.com/lifeandculture/ci_13151844)

Cleanings, Fillings, Glasses, and Mammograms. This wasn't even major work being done, this wasn't million dollar care being given out. People lined up and waited 8 days just to get things that are about as basic as going for a regular check-up. And while the idea that medical care can cost as much as a 1st time mortgage and can strike from no where is concerning, whats more concerning is that when the representatives from all over the country come together the debate is this...

Is making sure people can get cleanings and mammograms a tyrannical government takeover?

Really? Everyone interviewed was a working world stiff who just wanted preventative maintenance. Lets talk about that just quickly. If everyone knew what they could do to prevent major medical problems, wouldn't we be a lot better off? At least at that point couldn't we say you had your chance? In the end 60% of this country (roughly) has private insurance. Lets just leave that fact as it is. I can't say what % of the country is on Government care (every senior is for example) so lets just say America isn't 40% uninsured. But if its 10% or 15% if we could pass legislation so those folks had a shot...would that really take down the greatest republic the world has produced to date?

American's have always espoused the virtues of freedom and liberty. America's about options, and when we look to other nations where class systems still exist, or that a good amount of the population has no chance other than the States to go to college, I'm always reminded that for all our flaws we're still the last best hope - not for the well to do euros - but for the third worlders who want a better place for their families. I can tell you I walk about 4 different languages a day here on my way to the bus and they didn't come here because of our blinding arrogance. America is still a place where so much can be yours if you really want it. Sometimes we're chastised for how hard you have to work, but you can be assured that if you only have one goal in life, you can get it here. People are given fame and money unfairly sometimes, but that never stops you from yours. The idea that nothing is impossible on our shoes, no matter how minute, superficial, or sentimental is still something most of us believe.

The dream of preventative care, that someone who knows what their talking about can say "you need to be careful of X" or "try eating more of Y", and that everyone has the opportunity to just know that the ticking time bomb of a heart attack isn't around the corner orphaning children, burdening your family. Is that really the right we want to start denying? We've got our differences but we need to understand that this has been ruined every time politics was introduced. The time has come for Americans to stand up for one another, for the voiceless fools working too many jobs to have time to speak, and say that - no, we don't want free government handouts - but these people should have a choice, and if the private market is abandoning them in the interest of profits then the government should make sure that its citizenry is looked after.

I'll finish my tirade with a line from the most Liberal of Lions, Ted Kennedy and his all too famous closing at the DNC in 1980.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

NYT: A modern love

As with all aggrigated news postings, please click the link to give due credit and revenue to author and publisher respectivly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/fashion/02love.html?_r=1&em=&pagewanted=print



Modern Love

Those Aren’t Fighting Words, Dear

By LAURA A. MUNSON

LET’S say you have what you believe to be a healthy marriage. You’re still friends and lovers after spending more than half of your lives together. The dreams you set out to achieve in your 20s — gazing into each other’s eyes in candlelit city bistros when you were single and skinny — have for the most part come true.

Two decades later you have the 20 acres of land, the farmhouse, the children, the dogs and horses. You’re the parents you said you would be, full of love and guidance. You’ve done it all: Disneyland, camping, Hawaii, Mexico, city living, stargazing.

Sure, you have your marital issues, but on the whole you feel so self-satisfied about how things have worked out that you would never, in your wildest nightmares, think you would hear these words from your husband one fine summer day: “I don’t love you anymore. I’m not sure I ever did. I’m moving out. The kids will understand. They’ll want me to be happy.”

But wait. This isn’t the divorce story you think it is. Neither is it a begging-him-to-stay story. It’s a story about hearing your husband say “I don’t love you anymore” and deciding not to believe him. And what can happen as a result.

Here’s a visual: Child throws a temper tantrum. Tries to hit his mother. But the mother doesn’t hit back, lecture or punish. Instead, she ducks. Then she tries to go about her business as if the tantrum isn’t happening. She doesn’t “reward” the tantrum. She simply doesn’t take the tantrum personally because, after all, it’s not about her.

Let me be clear: I’m not saying my husband was throwing a child’s tantrum. No. He was in the grip of something else — a profound and far more troubling meltdown that comes not in childhood but in midlife, when we perceive that our personal trajectory is no longer arcing reliably upward as it once did. But I decided to respond the same way I’d responded to my children’s tantrums. And I kept responding to it that way. For four months.

“I don’t love you anymore. I’m not sure I ever did.”

His words came at me like a speeding fist, like a sucker punch, yet somehow in that moment I was able to duck. And once I recovered and composed myself, I managed to say, “I don’t buy it.” Because I didn’t.

He drew back in surprise. Apparently he’d expected me to burst into tears, to rage at him, to threaten him with a custody battle. Or beg him to change his mind.

So he turned mean. “I don’t like what you’ve become.”

Gut-wrenching pause. How could he say such a thing? That’s when I really wanted to fight. To rage. To cry. But I didn’t.

Instead, a shroud of calm enveloped me, and I repeated those words: “I don’t buy it.”

You see, I’d recently committed to a non-negotiable understanding with myself. I’d committed to “The End of Suffering.” I’d finally managed to exile the voices in my head that told me my personal happiness was only as good as my outward success, rooted in things that were often outside my control. I’d seen the insanity of that equation and decided to take responsibility for my own happiness. And I mean all of it.

My husband hadn’t yet come to this understanding with himself. He had enjoyed many years of hard work, and its rewards had supported our family of four all along. But his new endeavor hadn’t been going so well, and his ability to be the breadwinner was in rapid decline. He’d been miserable about this, felt useless, was losing himself emotionally and letting himself go physically. And now he wanted out of our marriage; to be done with our family.

But I wasn’t buying it.

I said: “It’s not age-appropriate to expect children to be concerned with their parents’ happiness. Not unless you want to create co-dependents who’ll spend their lives in bad relationships and therapy. There are times in every relationship when the parties involved need a break. What can we do to give you the distance you need, without hurting the family?”

“Huh?” he said.

“Go trekking in Nepal. Build a yurt in the back meadow. Turn the garage studio into a man-cave. Get that drum set you’ve always wanted. Anything but hurting the children and me with a reckless move like the one you’re talking about.”

Then I repeated my line, “What can we do to give you the distance you need, without hurting the family?”

“Huh?”

“How can we have a responsible distance?”

“I don’t want distance,” he said. “I want to move out.”

My mind raced. Was it another woman? Drugs? Unconscionable secrets? But I stopped myself. I would not suffer.

Instead, I went to my desk, Googled “responsible separation” and came up with a list. It included things like: Who’s allowed to use what credit cards? Who are the children allowed to see you with in town? Who’s allowed keys to what?

I looked through the list and passed it on to him.

His response: “Keys? We don’t even have keys to our house.”

I remained stoic. I could see pain in his eyes. Pain I recognized.

“Oh, I see what you’re doing,” he said. “You’re going to make me go into therapy. You’re not going to let me move out. You’re going to use the kids against me.”

“I never said that. I just asked: What can we do to give you the distance you need ... ”

“Stop saying that!”

Well, he didn’t move out.

Instead, he spent the summer being unreliable. He stopped coming home at his usual six o’clock. He would stay out late and not call. He blew off our entire Fourth of July — the parade, the barbecue, the fireworks — to go to someone else’s party. When he was at home, he was distant. He wouldn’t look me in the eye. He didn’t even wish me “Happy Birthday.”

But I didn’t play into it. I walked my line. I told the kids: “Daddy’s having a hard time as adults often do. But we’re a family, no matter what.” I was not going to suffer. And neither were they.

MY trusted friends were irate on my behalf. “How can you just stand by and accept this behavior? Kick him out! Get a lawyer!”

I walked my line with them, too. This man was hurting, yet his problem wasn’t mine to solve. In fact, I needed to get out of his way so he could solve it.

I know what you’re thinking: I’m a pushover. I’m weak and scared and would put up with anything to keep the family together. I’m probably one of those women who would endure physical abuse. But I can assure you, I’m not. I load 1,500-pound horses into trailers and gallop through the high country of Montana all summer. I went through Pitocin-induced natural childbirth. And a Caesarean section without follow-up drugs. I am handy with a chain saw.

I simply had come to understand that I was not at the root of my husband’s problem. He was. If he could turn his problem into a marital fight, he could make it about us. I needed to get out of the way so that wouldn’t happen.

Privately, I decided to give him time. Six months.

I had good days, and I had bad days. On the good days, I took the high road. I ignored his lashing out, his merciless jabs. On bad days, I would fester in the August sun while the kids ran through sprinklers, raging at him in my mind. But I never wavered. Although it may sound ridiculous to say “Don’t take it personally” when your husband tells you he no longer loves you, sometimes that’s exactly what you have to do.

Instead of issuing ultimatums, yelling, crying or begging, I presented him with options. I created a summer of fun for our family and welcomed him to share in it, or not — it was up to him. If he chose not to come along, we would miss him, but we would be just fine, thank you very much. And we were.

And, yeah, you can bet I wanted to sit him down and persuade him to stay. To love me. To fight for what we’ve created. You can bet I wanted to.

But I didn’t.

I barbecued. Made lemonade. Set the table for four. Loved him from afar.

And one day, there he was, home from work early, mowing the lawn. A man doesn’t mow his lawn if he’s going to leave it. Not this man. Then he fixed a door that had been broken for eight years. He made a comment about our front porch needing paint. Our front porch. He mentioned needing wood for next winter. The future. Little by little, he started talking about the future.

It was Thanksgiving dinner that sealed it. My husband bowed his head humbly and said, “I’m thankful for my family.”

He was back.

And I saw what had been missing: pride. He’d lost pride in himself. Maybe that’s what happens when our egos take a hit in midlife and we realize we’re not as young and golden anymore.

When life’s knocked us around. And our childhood myths reveal themselves to be just that. The truth feels like the biggest sucker-punch of them all: it’s not a spouse or land or a job or money that brings us happiness. Those achievements, those relationships, can enhance our happiness, yes, but happiness has to start from within. Relying on any other equation can be lethal.

My husband had become lost in the myth. But he found his way out. We’ve since had the hard conversations. In fact, he encouraged me to write about our ordeal. To help other couples who arrive at this juncture in life. People who feel scared and stuck. Who believe their temporary feelings are permanent. Who see an easy out, and think they can escape.

My husband tried to strike a deal. Blame me for his pain. Unload his feelings of personal disgrace onto me.

But I ducked. And I waited. And it worked.

Laura A. Munson is a writer who lives in Whitefish, Mont.

the printed word from the horses elitist mouth

people say twitter is going to achieve the breaking point of information. That we'll have access to so much unfiltered information that we'll go running back to the newspapers.

they keep using the same talking point. I've never been to the twitter page, but I can tell you no one tweets about the cheese sandwich they are eating. No one checks on those people.

i think the newspapers are smug. And I think writers are worse. I read somewhere I can't recall that journalists don't see it as a job, but as if they're doing something for the good of the people. thats how we got in this mess. i guess they're breaking the old maxim "don't live to work, work to live."

your jobs no more important than mine, and anyone can learn my job. maybe filtered news is the problem though i doubt thats industry wide. the local news is a sham. as the dig tells it, its a "cavalcade of car accidents and house fires" and I've used that example ever since.

Periodicals are the only news source I trusted and you get the same thing in the long run. a well researched article with all angles covered. in 2007, on the lead up to Time's Man of the Year i remember the dopes in the "media" fighting over whether it should be david petraeus or al gore.

Time picked vladimir putin. which was a logical choice. the first two were fixing issues, the third ressurected a 25 year old corpse of a nation.

i don't have writers or the media because they are bias - i'm bias. i hate them because somewhere out there in their training as journalists they beleive they become ghandi. its too bad too because i liked the op-ed section.

tears of a clown

funny ain't funny anymore. Attempt to be droll. Stop thinking. Sculpted set-ups don't play well anywhere.

I heard ya have to stumble over a joke in order to achieve success. Bad jokes are only funny if they are bad enough, to point out how bad bad jokes are.

I was watching daniel tosh on saturday and she said to me "he's only funny because he's shocking, and people don't know what else to do so they laugh." I think its funny because it got out of its cage. No one else says these things because they want to stay in good graces. Pirates are funny.

Pirates and those little kids at the Chinese restaurant who do things intentionally to piss off their parents. My father turned to me and said "its the same in every culture and language. No kids different."

Kick, Drink, and Be Merry

Lechmere station is equivocal to mars. Nothing is right there, and it’s certainly not part of the city.

I leaned against the brick wall, thick with years of painting over the same white-roller paint jobs and it looked like all the memories of my childhood, hanging around old arcades and cheap, weeklong carnivals.

There’s an old circus sign hanging 3 feet above my head advertising “Trolley Snacks” but the splintered, red counters have been folded up to block the windows. The conductor walks by me, his loose cap barely on his shiny bald head and slams through one of the rusting black doors. When he returns 5 minutes later, he looks at me before he boards.

“this trains leaving”

“I’m looking for the D”

“Only E’s leave from here, switch at Park”

The vision from the platform haunts me as I’m riding through the Rat tunnels underneath the Capitol. The rails pull up, and veer far to the right, while the wires of the trains cables and power lines hang in the air like empty staves of music. In the distance the spotted condo’s and their satellite dishes seem to have a hum of a life I can’t quite describe. In the distance, without sound and only small images, things seem to go as their planned. People move about their homes, and they seem happy, and the wires bring in options for interests and the trains, and their lego-yellow platforms seem stream-lined; its all correct and for a minute things seem right with the world. As if the scene playing out comforts me with a pat on the back and say its all attainable.

In the middle of the tracks, theres a sole patch where the rubber had been torn up, likely for repairs and a gapping plank of wood sits slightly below level with the rest of the platform. I don’t really know what it means but its there and I feel as if it should carry some weight.

Back in the bar, the party rages on. I spent 20 minutes talking to a 22 year old girl who’d had too much tequila and how her financial advice to clients is “the markets fucked, keep the money in your mattress.” We trade the normal pleasantries searching for common ground and she tells me she was in Taunton once in 8th grade for a cheerleading competition. I’ve heard more than I needed and excuse myself for the bathroom.

In the dining room, there’s beer all over the tables and theres a half eaten pizza every third table. I can’t help but think there’s a herpes culture expanding like the universe on every puddle of PBR with cheap cups flipped over standing in it. The guys in the bathroom greet you with a nod; enough to establish a lack of hostilities, not enough to warrant conversation. I’d rather talk to the guys here anyway, they don’t come with an agenda. There are three kinds of women at these parties, those that are trying to sleep with you, those that think you’re trying to sleep with them, and the small few who are too drunk to care.
Tonight the latter was Ashley, who had all the early standings. “So is mine” she said after I told her my names hard to pronounce correctly. When she told me her name, I questioned how she got like this.

“My team has a rule that you can’t leave the field until all the booze is gone, and we have a huuuuuge cooler and I had to drink it all myself because I wanted to go to the bar.”

She could not have been more than 110 lbs. “What were you drinking?” I needed to know, this wasn’t beer drunk and it was 3 in the afternoon.

“It was tequila, and vodka, and beer.” I had to assume that was at least two different drinks and not some sort of alcoholic Voltron, but given this woman’s demeanor, it very well could have been.

In some ways I can’t help but feel I’ve stumbled upon some Dionysian grove in this beat-up shanty in East Cambridge. Surrounded by slaughterhouses and local banks, and building that were once proud captains of industry that look today sullen and as if they were the lone survivor of the car accident on the family road trip. The 9 to 5 stiffs dance like children, out of synch with the music and spill on themselves with no regard. I can’t help but look with an out of body experience, and wonder when we’ll all be too old, or when I should grow up. When the feds will kick in the door or when everyone will just fade away like all the Rocky Points and King’s Castles. I’m wondering when the ball pit became too germy and when my Coney Island baby is coming home.

Cheers my fellow kickers. We should drink as if this is our last stand against the growing hum of complacent tomorrow, whatever it brings.

Why can't I own a Canadian?

I'm one of those conservatives that thinks goverment should have as limited a role as possible in peoples lives, and this Burkeian "moral authority" crap is directly opposed to my beliefs. A guy on the music forum I frequent posted this letter from 2002 that I thought people needed to read.

Why Can't I Own a Canadian?
October 2002

Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a east coast resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted fan,
Jim

Saturday. In the Park. I think it was the 4th of July.

some men capture what I can forget to keep in mind. Sometimes the saltbowl can still be beautiful. every so often, even in the depths of summer, when all the flip-flops fuse with the side walks, we can still have a celebration.

Of the two 4th of July celebrations I've been to in the city the first was a celebration of people, and the second might as well have been a friends episode.

That first time was my first residence in Boston, and we moved in on the first of June. Nestled in a student-free brighton hill, we were swallowed up by what people refer to as "real boston;" the commuters, the families, the children on scooters hasseling you for money, the cars crawling and the bikes weaving between them. The night had already come in and because of the holiday, a holiday you felt more strongly here, we all walked in the street, thousands of people migrating to the Hatchshell to watch the Pops. The charles looked like a bayou and there wasn't a patch wide enough for the blanket but the music rang along the banks and we all ate ice cream like children. I was proud to say I felt no emotions then.

The harvard bridge with its satellite vision of the state street art work filled up full and clear like the whole damn city was going to blow. The T's rang with efficency and we all were half deaf. The heat wave gave way to icy cars and in the middle of summer we all shivered like a rung church bell. I carried fast food in a brown paper bag, and we all went back to an old brick building with the floral hotel carpeting in the stairwells. we sat in a poorly ventilated living room and left only the screen door closed. We stood on our balcony that looked out to the back of the buildings across the way, ugly in their honestly, traced the ages in delapidating portions and make-shift carpentry. We drank to our freedom in every regard and toasts let the bubbles lat out on the floor.

For all the miersery on the north shore, or hardnosed lesson of the southern. For the memories in the west and the day to day here, I could never be a man from another place and time. Today I share its destiny. Lick the salt from the rim, shoot the last of the night, and stumble back to an old stylus and ramble till dawn.

Old Friends and Blue Roses

When I was in high school they used to joke that there were the Feats of Brow. A selection of things I’d done because I was stupid and basically got shit lucky if you don’t factor in my penchant for argument and that I ooze charm.

One of them revolved around a girl name Kristen McCarthy. As was my lot back then, I played an effective wing man because I had ridiculous stories, could talk about anything (a discipline I’d studied when I asked a ripe young politician why he would watch a show as effeminate as Days of our Lives. “You need to be able to talk about anything.”), and I had a joke or two. In the course of that charge, I ended up saying, hey if I’m going to keep doing this for you, why don’t you set me up with someone I like. My rearing in Taunton taught me to be at least a superficial schemer. You don’t get anywhere without a plan.

We ended up managing to execute the date, and through the course of it somewhere I picked her up with a cheeseburger. At 26, I’m not proud of it, but at the height of the Austin Powers fame, I made a cheeseburger talk like the character Fat Bastard, and despite her vegetarian tendencies, managed to swing this into what at the time counted for a relationship.

She was the first girl to really break my heart for no good reason either. It wasn’t that serious, but I’ve never taken that sort of thing well. It’s a large part of the reason I’ve a bitter sod. A lifetime of thinking this one was going to work, and it never did. A year or so back I was with an old familiar group and they’d told me she was pregnant; a South American guy who didn’t speak English. I had to just shake my head. She had a wild side and went for guys who were generally troubled. If it weren’t for that cheeseburger I don’t think I’d have had a chance.

The other day our camping department put up a giant banner in our lobby and it stand to the left of my door. It’s a standard marketing piece, shots of kids from summers past and big, brass, letters saying what its all about, but I look at the same kid in one of those photos every time, because as much as I know it isn’t, she looks like Kristen’s 18-year-old twin. It’s more weird that I hadn’t thought of her, or that time of my life in a lifetime. I’m not the same person, in fact when I remember myself at that time; it seems more like a brother, than me. But there I am, in a world removed with a terrible haircut and oversized t-shirts. And there she is, sitting outside my office, as a reminder of so many things; who I was, how far I’ve come, how far off the path life can go, and the myriad of reasons she might have chosen that direction.

In all, it’s a reminder of why I write. Sometimes I’m working through problems when I sit down and write but sometimes its good to remind yourself of past failures and victories, to remind yourself of why you do what you do, where you ought to be going, and what drives you down that road. I was thinking I should give her a call to see what she was up to. I expect her to be alone with a kid, and sometimes you can use an old friend’s voice, or a good story to carry you through, but I honestly wouldn’t know what to say. She’s not on a different road anymore; she lives in a different state (metaphorically). I think maybe I’ll send her a single blue rose. She’d understand, and maybe for a half a second she’d remember who she used to be too.

I love my kickball team

In case its not evident. This is leigh, stabbing me with a bunch of needles she found in the Fenway because I made fun of her Alma mater, Northeastern University. I'm assuming the reason we're "Entering Taunton" is because she hunted me down.

when my friends played wow...

So if you didn't know, I am a nerd of uncomprable versity and unabashed admission. That established, I play W.O.W. (world of warcraft).

there are roughly 10 million players worldwide so I don't know why anyone should feel pushed into a corner, but regardless they sometimes do. Since the game was released in November or 2004 its always been about, existing around the game, a social enviornment.

When it was released it was the most in demand item you've read about. Issel and I went to the mall, actually 2 of them, and between the 4 stores there we only found one copy. I offered it to him, and he passed saying "we should buy it together."

"What if the next store only has one copy?"

He bought it. The next store had none.

I think it was released on a tuesday. I searched every day that week for a copy, but to no avail. On saturday I'd got out of bed at an unprecedented 7 am and drove to a Target in Seakonk, about a 30 minute drive on the hopes that they had one.

When i'd arrived I walked as fast as I could without drawing attention to myself to the videogame section. The games were stacked out from the back of the shelf and there between two games I can no longer recall was a gap. I peered down the hole to find one lone copy of WOW there in the back, hiding from public awareness.

It was all I could do to not sprint down the aisle, when I put it on the counter I crowded around it, to the confusion of the old woman buying sucks behind me in her fur coat. The cashier asked if i'd like anything else.

"no." I can still remember thinking I was snappy, but I could care less. I raced home, shot issel a text and spent the next few weeks addicted.

Somewhere in there, later on Marshall came hom from Officer Training with a broken leg and, unable to do much of anything, we got him into the game. We all kept in touch, we all made plans through the game. We talked on vent, and shot the shit while trying to take down any number of celebrated computer-drive adverseries.

We waited outside of January-cold buildings in strip malls, all lifeless except for the massing of nerd sitting outside and talking about the game, for one event steve and I ate wendys, for the other jon and I got drunk. Times been passing, friends have been dropping out. In the fall I left the group of guys I'd played with for close to two or three years.

In short its just a game, and the day will come where I put it down for good. Life is temporal and things fall by the wayside, but more than just a game, WOW served as electronic watering hole, the proverbial office water cooler for friends I'd grown up with and some I'd never met. And now it too has run its course.

For its detractors, wow was a nerd heaven that only the slovenly and the fat engaged in. Children that never grew up, who only had friends on the internet. But despite the way many would intentionally and ignorantly spin it, it was the same as walking around the mall, or sitting in the backyard throwing back beers, just in computer form.

And now, barreling down on its 5 year dominance of the video game industry, wow is becoming more and more unappealing, because while the game is basically the same, the friends have all taken off for greener pastures. In many ways, its no different than real life, except out here, I'm not forced to look at a list of guy and their non-deplumes that never light up...

Happy Raiding.

Mtv will save my job

If you were a conscious person following the days of 9/11 and you watch TV more than passing one by in store windows you likely heard some variation of this phrase: “You know, for those younger people out there that came up in the MTV generation, this isn’t going to be gone tomorrow. This is real and permanent and it’s something we really have to live with.”

I should have been offended. The idea of guessing someone’s emotional reaction is arrogant at best, even if you’d come up in the same generation. I caulked it all up to the angry wilting of youth the young newscaster was feeling, realizing she was going to be on local news covering traffic jams with the local baseball team soon. But I’d heard the phrase or something like it constantly for weeks after 9/11, talking points and platitudes coming like fads in its own journalistic microcosm.

But if she was right, and my cranky tantrum was juvenile and immature, I think at this critical juncture, I’ve got to passing talking points of my own. We’re currently sitting in an awakening to how much of a sham the world of finance really is. As one market research correspondent remarked, “money isn’t anything with inherent value, we prescribe value to it, and gold’s no different.” WOW!


I didn’t go to school for finance, I went for English, and when the real world reared its ugly head, I went back for Political Science. At no point in my 17 years tenure at college did I believe I was doing anything other than the abstract. We knew what we were, and the first of those things was “mocked” by those with “purposeful” majors. That’s the sin I’m talking about, finance has paraded around for years as some concrete piece of machinery, intricate in its assembly and operation. Too difficult for the lay person to figure out. We went to men with Ivy League degrees and experience for support, and only in a time of unwavering rebuke, when we’ve walking into the proverbial coat room at the Christmas party and saw it fucking the boss were they ever forced to admit…this is all a sham.

This has left us with will. How we will the markets to be, how we determine the state of the country to be in (financially of course), English majors willingly accept the poverty they’ve chosen, but they’ve never asserted we were needed to run the country. So now we need to imagine.

The accusation being lobbed at President Obama as a last ditch effort by the finance industry to screw over a man they despise is that his tone is ruining the country. These 40 something’s are telling me that I have a short memory span? I can recall the last 4 years, and while I’m chomping at the bit to make that comparison, it’s done nightly on Olberman and The Daily Show, so I’ll make my point that I came to the dais with.


Should not the attention-deprived, Ritalin-addled, multi-takers of this new generation, those quick to forget the gravity of a situation, those iKids that move on before the last things over, aren’t they the solution? We need consumerism they say, now more than ever we can’t save.


If the forgetful are the engine by which the country is run, maybe gravity is not the merit we should long for. Maybe we should all believe this will be gone tomorrow, spend like the axe isn’t looming over our heads and remind ourselves that the past is long gone. There’s a book out there to the title of something like “How the Irish saved Civilization.” Its thesis from my understanding (having not read it) is that all the great old historic texts from the Old World were saved in a Celtic library while the originals or their near offspring burned while Rome was sacked. If all of what I’ve writing is within a foot of being accurate, the next book should be called “How MTV saved the American Economy.”

Yankee Passion

If you've ever met up with me for coffee on some early saturday monring, you know I love practicing Yankeedom. I read this today and loved it, and thought I might pass it on...

A humorous aphorism attributed to E.B. White summarizes these distinctions:

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Northerners, a Yankee is an Easterner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

The cycling worlds forgotten children.

“Wrong format.” It was a blunt rejection of a modest proposal. “Anyone who rides their bikes to grab a pack of cigarettes doesn’t read Bicycle magazine, and people who read Bicycle magazine don’t give a shit about people who use their bikes to commute.”


I’d met with Ian to discuss the options for a magazine that would cater to cycling’s forgotten sub-class; the commuter.

“Is that going to be the focus of the magazine?”


It wasn’t. I’d just finished reading an article about why New York magazine had been such a successful, enjoyable read. How the creators knew the energy of New York back then (70’s?) and they’d translated its beauty into insightful articles and well thought-out and penetrating opinion pieces. The same energy that had been missing from countless other city magazines that ended up being a bunch of snobby trust-fund writers talking about night clubs with prison-like consistency, and restaurants that charged $40 per inch of food. I looked at this and thought Boston deserved much better, the laundry list of topics could span for years if we’d only made one at the first round table discussion.

The city was as true to life as it gets. No omnipotent mayors rearranging cities into grids, Boston’s cow paths would remain, and a state legislature that repeatedly sent themselves and contractors to the big house when they attempt to “grid” the highway system. What other city ahs shifting exit ramps? That alone is the most interesting architectural piece in America.

How could a city so aligned in the minds of Americas with racism by way of bussing also be the only place that gay people could get married. How much of a line can Boston walk?

From its roughed-up gulley’s in JP and Allston to the cobble-stone chucks of Beacon Hill and all its western outliers, the culture of people living in the Greater Boston region was, as distinctly homogenized in its uniqueness. These cultures we’re nationality based, they weren’t given to you in a blood line; they were conscious choices, a throwback to a time when neighborhoods said everything about somebody. How they voted, what tax bracket they were in, how they saw the world, and the types of people they married.

And all of these tiny issues that made Boston, Boston were circling around, and intertwined with the morning commuter like nothing else. It was the card between the spokes; it was the elephant in the room.


The cycling commuter isn’t box-able. They’re not all the same. The DUI’ers line up with the Green-minded, and peddle alongside those fitness-junkies who peddle to work because there aren’t parking spaces after 4:30 a.m. in the financial district. The people without cars because Somerville’s ticketing system is a fascist regime, and because those roadways made a bike more efficient than any car could be. Those in the know up here know two things; the bus will save you more time than the T if you’ll only learn to read the schedule, and that bicycles are the fastest way to get anywhere.

But there was still no outlet for the community to rally. In my opinion, communities of like-minded interests can get quite a bit done if they rally, and that usually takes a swift boot in the ass. The larger problem in Boston is that a large part of the 60’s envisioned utopia springs eternal. Older folks with graying hair and polo collars still believe the fairy tales of the drug-induced Marxist theory.

Like communism itself, when its put in to practice it doesn’t really amount to anything of worth. Half-hearted protests, a “bike day” where we all ride down Comm. Ave. with a police escort, writing to our representative. These are all ideas that are supposed to work but of course never do. If not for the benevolent dictator; Tommy Teddybear up in City Hall the cyclists who actually need a legal recognition would be dead in the water, or more accurately, under the wheels of the 66.

What Boston really needs to do is stop holding signs on the common in colorful tribal garb and start throwing some fucking tea into the ocean. In other words, A lot less Cambridge, and a lot more Boston.


For all intents and purposes, cyclers are a second class citizen that does more for a commercial area than motors physically can. We reduce the need for space, we decongest busy roadway and we end up paying more than our share of taxes for things we don’t use.* A more opening commuting community also is a new source of revenue for everyone. Its not all bike racks and locks. We create urban infrastructure, roadways, specialty shops, and reduce the wear and tear on roadways.


You’ll notice I didn’t mention the environmental impact. Less Cambridge more Boston. In addition to my insistence on community lockstep to achieve goals, there’s also a degree of politics. The environment for quite a few politicians is a conversation killer. It ends debate, they shutdown and no one gets anywhere. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my short career it this; cut to the chase, give them the cost and how its going to help them. Mention the rest as icing on the cake when their already on board but for Christ sakes, never let it be the breadth of the issue. Ever.


Cyclists need to, as a community, present themselves as a grouping in existence for the better of civil function, for social progression, and that are fiscally prudent, rather than telling everyone to ride a bike because we’re causing hurricanes. Even if that’s the case, the goal should be to win your position, not say “I told you so, I was right” when its too late. In this position, the environmentalists are more guilty than those who don’t care because their charge is a responsibility they are not taking custody of.


The ends justify the means. As “Tip” O’Neil would say, “all politics is local” and the line is drawn this way, there are winners and there are not winners. This accurately accounts for all gray areas. Take baby steps, hit them where it matters (generally the wallets, sometimes kids), and never get off message. You allow one space cadet to invoke your name without violent repudiation and you might as well hang up your hat. The community is there, our needs our reasonable and our demands are logical as well as cost-efficient. We just need a voice, out many comes one. E pluribus unum. Ride safe friends.

* http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/331734_firstperson17.html

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.

--H.G. Wells

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.

- John F. Kennedy

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.

-- Ernest Hemingway

You're a f***ing pervert is what you are.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/books/review/Gottlieb-t.html?_r=1

The article in the link above is something thats fascinated be for awhile. It basically details the things people look for in a mate, and how that effects their lives. The article makes a couple important points that are central to the overall inquirey.

The following is a quote from a woman who has no legs and who's husband, Ron, happens to find that a turn on...

"Yet Ron’s current wife, also legless, questions at times whether her marriage to Ron is romantic or sick. She has, after all, seen the Internet chat rooms where men like Ron list specific preferences for SAEs (single-arm amputations above the elbow) or DAKs (double-leg amputations above the knee). “But,” she wondered, “was a preference for a single arm really all that different from a preference for a certain color hair, a certain tone of skin or shape of face or type of body?” "

You can read this sort of thing all over the web, you can pair it up with psychological text in most academic texts, but rarely, given our Puritan origins, has anything been this openly discussed in a major news outlet that spans the nation. If the question above doesn't convince you that this is less an illness and more a preference, we should cite history (and the same article) for a reference to see how we all are...

"Are all of them deviant? None of them? Or is deviance a matter of time and place, the way that a century ago, fellatio and cunnilingus were regarded as perversions in some psychoanalytic circles?"

Truth be told, there are people out there who still find those two things perverse. Even within the confines of a locked bedroom, and a monogomous marrige. But today those folks are few and far between and the idea that these are normal has long ago been exported from ancient Indian text.

Once the point was established the article and I parted ways. I was happy to see the the curiosity stood to become slightly more public, but while the NYT's kept fighting the crusade for it being normal, I kept wondering - How does this happen?

We've all seen the standard ones. We've all at least heard of the foot thing, we all know about violence and the costumes but there were tons out there, not as high profile but with a stewing mass of supporters on backwater sites all over the internet. (To be fair, i'd never heard of the amputee thing prior to the article).

You need only click haphazardly on a pop-up ad to be thrust (intended) into a world of weird fixations you've never seen or heard of before. The one that has confused me for years now is balloons. The thing about this one is, there isn't really anything perverse about it. Its just naked people of the gender of your choosing with, around, and on balloons. And even the "on" isn't weird, their just sitting on them.

In this capacity, the balloon isn't any different than a chair or a couch, its a prop in the area. So what the hell? To date I don't know. I thought it was a tactile thing, may a latex like structure was the crux of the issue but tons of things in the defiled world have this property so I'll ask again...why the circus toy?

In truth I've never found out and to be honest I don't activly look. I just know that its lurking out there and I need to know why I'm just too lazy and prefer my retnas to do anything about it. If you're not actually dealing with sites that are peddling it for pornographic use, like craigslist or other classfied internet sections, then you can generally get into the midset of these people which is all I want. We all know what a sick world it is out there, and that might be a matter of preference, but that my preference and I'll stick to inquiring outloud and hoping someone else can give me a hint.