Because It's Memorial Day

Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast:

But most people will skip the parades. They'll go to Best Buy and pick up a new air conditioner, or they'll pick up a new bathing suit at the mall, or get the tomatoes planted. They'll catch up on housework, or spend one last hot humid day at the beach before heading back to work. But there's one thing they won't do, and that's think about how the stage is being set for this November's election to be a sham, a banana republic election that Saddam Hussein would have been proud of, one in which everyone that Republicans can't rely on to vote for them will be prevented from voting, either by rigging the voting machines, or providing inadequate machines to precincts, or by voter ID laws, or simply by purging people from the voter rolls for no reason.

Nevertheless, remember those who fell defending this country--including those who at the time of their deaths did not have the right to vote.

ETA:  Musical selections for the day.

Ideal and Actual

1. Congress violated constitutional standards on legalized bigotry when it denied federal benefits from same-sex spouses and excluded domestic partners of state employees from long-term health coverage, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

   There still doesn't seem to be anything remotely resembling "legitimate governmental purpose" to the "Defense of Marriage" Act.  There does seem to be a lot of fear and loathing of gay women and men.  Make of that what you will.
   
2. Arthur Silber reposts an old essay of his on war:

   If we were genuinely concerned with honoring those who have died in war, we would make it our sacred task to eradicate the causes of war. Of course, many Americans -- including most notably our leading politicians -- couldn't care less about truly honoring those whose guts have been ripped out, whose limbs have been bloodily and painfully mutilated, whose minds have been destroyed. For the state and its enablers, the war dead are props used to purify and sanctify the ongoing and future campaigns of slaughter, in an endless procession of slaughters throughout history. The war dead are especially useful, since they have been rendered forever mute; they are unable to tell us the truth of what they endured, or about the lies for which they died.

"Now I've Found/That the World Is Round/And Of Course It Rains Every Day"

Bouquet for the morning:

• Ta-Nehisi Coates on the continuing effort to decouple American history from racism.  Jesse Curtis notes the article and makes a brief observation:

  Many of us want to think of racism only as a sudden evil that intrudes out of nowhere, rather than a pervasive background that shapes all sorts of beliefs and decisions.

• Mr. Curtis also takes down a conservative effort to claim the civil rights movement for Republicans:

  I've written before about the Republican Party's effort to pretend that it is  and always has been the progressive party on issues of race and civil rights. In this week's edition of the premier conservative magazine, National Review, Kevin D. Williamson undertakes the most ambitious effort I've yet seen to advance this myth. This is a real problem for conservatism. Look, in a lot of ways I want to be a conservative. In a lot of ways I am. But how are we to take "conservatism" seriously when its flagship publication is still engaging in such blatant stupidity on issues of race?
  
  [...]
  
  It's not polite to say so, but the irony of Williamson's piece is that its rooted in these racist assumptions. I'd say that considerably undercuts his argument. No one says hedge fund managers are on the plantation because they support the party that gives them tax breaks. No one says corn growers are on the plantation because they vote for people who support ethanol subsidies. No one says pro-lifers are on the plantation because they support a party that still hasn't managed to overturn Roe v. Wade. It's all just normal constituencies voting their interests. But when black people vote their interests, somehow it's a problem that needs to be explained.
  [Emphasis in original.]

• No, not Harry Potter; stock price rises on news of job destruction:

  And we're supposed to believe that NOT ONE of these 27,000 people can possibly be trained to do the jobs in the areas of strategic focus? Seriously? Note what happened today: HP beat Wall Street's expectations, and are STILL jettisoning 27,000 jobs. HP is supposed to be one of the "job creators", isn't it? Don't "Rich People Create Jobs"?

  Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast. For the Win.
  
• Video:  From the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Burning Issue lecture on Human Rights.

  Gearty, a professor of human rights law and a practising barrister, looks at the history of human rights and ideas that have informed their development such as democracy and dignity. He challenges the notion that human rights are a western idea, a mere 'cultural accessory', or that they can be used to justify 'necessary evil' – as an excuse to go to war or to torture as part of interrogation for example.

Enjoy.

In Memoriam

Hal Jackson, radio landmark.
Paul Fussell, scholar.

Want to know how the recall campaign in Wisconsin is going?  Rick Ungar at Forbes has the news:

While the concerns on the part of the national Democratic Party power elite may turn out to have been warranted, their unwillingness to come through with some badly needed cash for the Wisconsin effort—money that would help the Wisconsin Democratic Party buy some additional media in the final days or enhance the ground game that may be their only chance to pull off the win—is putting a sour taste in the mouths of Wisconsin democrats, a taste that could easily turn to apathy and anger should things go against Badger State democrats on recall election day.

[...]

Making the situation potentially more explosive is the inability of Wisconsin democrats and local labor organizations to entice the President to make an appearance in the state to drum up support for Mayor Barrett and to motivate the anti-Walker vote during the waning days of the campaign. The reluctance on the part of the Obama campaign to send in the one man who could make the most significant difference in voter turnout, inevitably brings to mind last year’s disappointment when the President chose not to come to Wisconsin in support of the pubic employee unions at the height of the battle over Scott Walker’s anti-collective bargaining effort.

Hello?  Hellllooooo!  This goes beyond toadying and into advanced sycophancy.  The recall of Gray Davis (remember Gray Davis?) for what turned out to be trumped-up "reasons" (remember Enron?) does not apply here.  A groundswell of "no-confidence" (to misuse a parliamentary term) rather than deep pockets got the vote to recall Scott Walker on the ballot. Maybe that's the problem; too much democracy, not enough Koch brothers.

Via Brilliant at Breakfast.

Potpourri for 700

My mom's microwave has a Potato setting that can actually deal with sweet potatoes and yams.  This is good because sweet potatoes are on the Probably Healthy Foods list and can offset some of the other things.  Ahem.

Meanwhile:

• Comments From Left Field is For Sale (Mr. Tedesco is getting out).  Drat.  There were interesting posts there.  Anonymous Liberal is also gone.  
• Doghouse Riley at Bats Left/Throws Right lambastes Evan Bayh in his usual inimitable manner.  You might also want to check out the video discussing the late fees on the bills of Indiana state agencies and the reaction when a reporter questions Gov. Mitch Daniels about that.
• Lance Mannion on what the American Taliban really aspire to.  
• Sadly, No! dissects a piece by Michelle Malkin, with a picture of her face somewhat distorted by hate, and I can't help wondering:
1. Does she know that she's exposing the ugliness of her soul instead of what she thinks her audience wants to see?  (Although that may be what they want to see.)
2. Has she heard the bit about one's face freezing in characteristic positions as one ages, and would she want her face to freeze in that grimace?
• No More Mister Nice Blog on a popular Democratic politician's subservience to "business."
• Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast spotlights Alexander Bolton's article from The Hill speculating about Jeb Bush as veep candidate.
• And R. I. P. Robin Gibb, Bee Gee.  (He had come out of a coma a few weeks ago...)

Volksoper

Via The Sideshow, Andy Ihnatko (Andy Ihnatko!  Whose stuff I was reading in the '90s!  He was to the Mac what Steve Sint was to camera equipment!) on performance in opera.  (Of course I'm impressed with baseball metaphors in opera!  Sheesh!)

A point made:

Anyway, it’s a shame that so many people don’t give opera a try. Opera was never meant to be inaccessible. There was a time when it was simply the popular entertainment of the day, just like movies are now. Opera stories go all over the map. You have your intense dramas, your light comedies, your action and fantasy productions.

And, as the advertising for a Certain Opera Company had it a couple of years ago, opera can be salacious.  Heh.

By the way, the last post was the 1,776th.  Somebody get me a fife and drum, stat!

"Much to Learn, You Still Have."

(The new interface is sucky [that's a technical design term] and I plan to keep using the old one until I have to use the new one.  Hasn't anyone at Google ever heard of beta testing?)

Sara Robinson gets deep into education:

The education of our children is a core cultural and political choice that reflects the deepest differences between liberals and conservatives -- because every educational conversation must start with the fundamental philosophical question: What is an education for?

[...]

In the conservative model, critical thinking is horrifically dangerous, because it teaches kids to reject the assessment of external authorities in favor of their own judgment -- a habit of mind that invites opposition and rebellion. This is why, for much of Western history, critical thinking skills have only been taught to the elite students -- the ones headed for the professions, who will be entrusted with managing society on behalf of the aristocracy. (The aristocrats, of course, are sending their kids to private schools, where they will receive a classical education that teaches them everything they'll need to know to remain in charge.) Our public schools, unfortunately, have replicated a class stratification on this front that's been in place since the Renaissance.

[...]

Our educational system is a product of our deepest values. And the battles we're having now are, very directly, battles over what we believe is possible in America, and what kind of country we want to be 20 years from now. The conservatives are not wrong: for 150 years, the schools have been the leading promoter and disseminator of progressive values. They are now doing their best to dismantle that system, and replace it with one that produces followers, subjects and serfs.

(There was a serious danger that I would just quote the whole thing. It's a substantial article; please read the rest.)

I may or may not have mentioned that I negotiated (for suitable values of "negotiate") the educational system through intelligent and empathetic teachers and lots of books, and I dropped out (of college) a couple of times.  I've walked to some schools, been bussed to others, taken subways to yet others.  I do not, thank God, have hostages to the future (children), but I am interested in theories of teaching, if only as an observer.  So I have been Viewing With Alarm attacks on schools for the last twenty or so years.  You know that bumper sticker about ignorance being more expensive than education?  Yeah.  Where that plays out currently seems to be people who don't know about anything that happened prior to 1990.  (Children, OK; everything is happening at once.  Adults should have at least a hazy idea of What Went Before so they don't do Dumb Things like deregulate banks.  Ya think?)

In Memoriam

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, singer.

In Memoriam

Donna Summer, singer.

Set Down That Teacup

Check the provenance of your Japanese tea.

(Fukushima Diary is a valuable on-the-ground resource despite occasional grammatical infelicities and things that sound like conspiracy theory.) (I do not endorse or believe in conspiracy theory, in case that isn't clear.)

Arrested Development in Right-Wing Men

Given the insecurity that lies at the heart of this sad compensation, it's especially ironic that they've got the whole country buffaloed into thinking this is appropriate adult behavior. We've ended up with a culture of maleness that emphasizes the objectification and degredation of women, a lack of male accountability for anything that happens in the culture, and a definition of masculinity that's all about empty shows of dubious might -- like peacocks preening on parade.

For the record: This is a comic-book stereotype of manhood as it's imagined by little boys. But it's not the real deal -- not even close.

Sara Robinson hits the nail on the head again.  (Which also ducks the question of conservative women, but everybody does.)

(Other suggestions here.)

In Memoriam

Maurice Sendak, author.

And I was a little older than his normal audience.

My Church Is Awesome!

Stand With American Nuns flyer in the church bulletin this morning!

(ncronline.org/SistersUnderScrutiny link not working right now but http://www.change.org/petitions/support-the-sisters is.)

Speaking of Allusions

Scott Walker as a Ringwraith.

(One doesn't see the Witch-King of Angmar's face, if he still has one, but Mr. Walker would definitely fit into that headpiece, wouldn't he?)

42 Years, 41 Shots, 21 Guns and Enough Allusions to Say "Huh?"

• Kent State happened 42 years ago; Daisy has an essay up along with "Ohio" on YouTube for however long.  Four died at Kent State; two died at Jackson State two weeks later.  For a generation these two massacres were signposts on the road to The Government Lies To You (along with Cambodia, the Vietnam War in general, Watergate, the Iran-Contra affair, and the run-up to the war in Iraq).  That still does not mean I believe libertarian promises, though.
• Caryn Rose reviews Bruce Springsteen in Newark, NJ (she's reviewing various nights of the Wrecking Ball tour); I had heard somewhere that he was performing "41 Shots," but it hasn't been namechecked in the reviews I've seen.
• Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys died.  (First link is Caryn Rose's farewell; second link is NYTimes.)  
• I finally put Mercury Rising on my blogroll last week and I'm glad I did.  Have a sample of "Excerpts of How to Speak Republican:" 

  Medicare: A fraudulent, socialistic boondoggle that is sacrosanct.

• Jesse Curtis on real equal opportunity:

  Now, I'm not sure that there is any significant group in America that literally believes in equal opportunity. But liberals do want to get a little closer to a literal expression of it, while conservatives are generally content to maintain opportunity in a symbolic sense. To be fair, this isn't necessarily as horrible as it sounds. As Waldman says, creating equal opportunity actually is a radical idea, and there would be tradeoffs associated with it. Conservatives do not believe those tradeoffs are worth it. That's actually quite reasonable.

Hmmmmm. I may have to crosspost...

The Green Manalishi...

Having brought up religion, I remembered that the Cardinals are attempting to bully the Leadership Conference of Women Religious for, you know, actually carrying out the tenets of Christianity; Garry Wills had an excellent essay on that at the New York Review of Books via Making Light (which also links to an article on what nuns do).  Fred Clark at The Slacktivist links to a history of Hierarchy vs. American women religious (and other writings) and puts together a selection of references thus:

The Vatican’s crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (i.e., on American nuns) is proving to be a public relations disaster and a morale-killer within the Catholic Church because it gives the appearance of a bunch of power-mad misogynists trying to distract from their own horrific scandals by exerting arbitrary manly authority over women who spend most of their time helping people. 

It gives that appearance because, actually, the Vatican’s crackdown on the LCWR is a bunch of power-mad misogynists trying to distract from their own horrific scandals by exerting arbitrary manly authority over women who spend most of their time helping people.

*innocent look*

...With a Two-Pronged Crown

Still decluttering.  The joint actually looks worse right now, but a couple of items missing since the '90s have turned up, so who knows?  (The spiders under the bookcase may be bringing suit for invasion of privacy, though.)

New Sara Robinson is up at AlterNet:  "Fascist America:  Have We Finally Turned the Corner?" It takes a hopeful tone:

The last time I visited this subject in 2010, progressives were reaching a point of maximum despair. In 2008, the GOP had taken its most thorough drubbing since the FDR years. But, just two years on, the far right had not only regrouped; it had taken full control of the Republican Party under the resurgent Tea Party banner -- and was getting set to elect some of the country's most extreme political, social and economic Neanderthals. In the process, it was also about to retake Congress, along with control of over half of the state governorships and legislatures.

And take over it did. In the wake of this victory, the far right's new electees shifted into overdrive, immediately introducing brutally aggressive legislation to bust unions, disenfranchise Democratic voters and roll back a century of progress on reproductive rights. The speed and power of the onslaught was breathtaking -- but it was also driven by desperation. What most pundits missed was the fact that the far right had no time to waste, because both the mood of the country and its basic demographic realities were changing under their feet.

[...]

... Right-wing America is old, white, rural, and religious -- a cohort that's shrinking with every passing year, and is even now in the process of being swamped by a tide of voters who are younger, urban, ethnically diverse, and largely non-churchgoing. It was that tide, mobilized, that elected Obama -- the first time it's been heard from, but by no means the last.

So these hard-and-fast grabs for power are a Hail Mary play. The far right sees that the clock is running out. It's rushing to consolidate its gains as fast as it can, in the hope of slamming America as far to the right as possible in the time it has left -- and also building big, ugly legal obstacles that will make it much harder to undo the damage when the younger, more progressive wave that's rolling in finally does assume full control.

[...]

My past assessments of the far fascist fringe's political prospects were mostly predicated on which side would win this race for the future.

[...]

Finally, after years of impotence, average Americans have done the one thing that will make all the difference: they woke up and got pissed. Wisconsin was the first sign. Then came Occupy. Now, this spring, it's sprouting up everywhere, to the point where our would-be fascists can't take a step anywhere without getting their feet tangled up by protestors determined to hold them to account.

Mind you: our country's future still looks like that slow-motion train wreck. But, even though the train is still moving and the horror is still filling our heads, you can finally hear your own voice screaming. And so can everybody else. There's a gathering sense that even though there's still nothing we can do, we must do something. Standing on the sidelines and watching is no longer an option. We know the time has come to fight for our country's future -- and our own futures as well. 

[...]

It could be another decade before we can fully shove the would-be fascists in our midst back into their box. Wrestling them in there will still be a long, ugly fight.

[Added emphasis mine.]

I suspect that people who are "leftish" and religious may play no small part (religion, as I may have mentioned a while ago, does not have to be a repressive, conservative force in society merely because some religious groups are) in defeating the Fascist Octopus (sorry).

* * *

Apparently there's a primary coming soon; I've started getting candidates' brochures and whatnot, all on sizes of paper too large for my shredder.  I have already recycled three mailings from the same person.  Warning:  I am going to vote for whoever

1. Is not conservative or possessed of ideas that don't work in the real world; and 
2. Sends me less stuff that I have to shred and recycle.

There is a lot of good stuff that I haven't linked to because my brain has decided to hibernate, but I hope to lure it out of its cave with threats of spring and delicious treats.

In Memoriam

Because I'm on strike:

• Butch Bouchard, Montréal Canadiens well before my time;
• Paul Bogart, TV and film director;
• Bert Weedon, guitar teacher;
• Alex Cassie, "Great Escape" document forger;
• LeRoy T. Walker, athletic coach (to Olympians) and past president of USOC;
• Joe Muranyi, clarinetist;
• Geroge Vujnovich, different World War II rescue;
• Richard Bellman, anti-discrimination legal eagle;
• Amarillo Slim, poker player.