4 Candles

Four years ago, I tapped the mike at this studio and spoke the traditional words.

I'm still here.  I'm still utterly horrified at the attempts to drag us all back to the [real, non-fun] Middle Ages.  I still relish actual humor, well-played baseball, and Quirky In Real Life.  I still know my history.

Speaking of which, have some "what they probably mean when they say 'the founders envisioned' and why you should run screaming." (via Shakesville)

And while I would be the first to acknowledge that there was certainly good in the vision that the founders had for this country, it is always mediated by the terrible things they believed about the many groups who, combined, make up a large majority of this country today.

Daisy's Dead Air went online exactly a year before I did, which is what reminded me.

OK, That's Settled

The Supreme Court largely affirmed the health care act.

The decision did significantly restrict one major portion of the law: the expansion of Medicaid, the government health-insurance program for low-income and sick people. The ruling give states some flexibility not to expand their Medicaid programs, without paying the same financial penalties that the law called for.

Born to Run

1. Rest in peace, Nora Ephron.  Even though I didn't seem to exist in her world.
2. Apparently the non-mustached conservative columnist at the New York Times took in a Bruce Springsteen concert (in Europe, to avoid running into actual Springsteen fans who spoke English) and packaged it into pellets.  Jamison Foser slices and dices Mr. Brooks and goes on to paste Gov. Chris Christie one in the chops.  (Link via rivkat at Dreamwidth.)  Driftglass collects several more links on the subject, all of which are well worth the click.  (Drifty posts a link to the original column so I don't have to for reference.)
3. ETA:  I missed Doghouse Riley's shredding of George Will's review of the Beach Boys concert.

   Must this always be said this way? Attention must be paid? Really? As though this great Generational Leviathan insists that Everyone listen to nothing but its incontinently nostalgic soundtrack of 60s Top 40 to Eternity? Codswallop. So far as I know, there's still a Glenn Miller Orchestra touring out there. There are Platters and Coasters and possibly Ink Spots out there, all, like George Washinton's original hatchet, having had the handle replaced five times and the blade six.
   
   Easy nostalgia for money is hardly a Boomer invention. I'm sorry, truly sorry, if it ruins your elevator riding experience, but take that up with the people who peddle shit for money, not people who like to relive the high point of their miserable lives made even more miserable by shit peddlers and their public spokesmen.

Not Only Anti-Intellectual, But Anti-Intelligence

Not a surprise.

Conservatives in favor of letting student loan interest rate (from this year on) double.

From Republic of T.

Susie Bright Has a Different Take

I haven't read that article in The Atlantic, but Susie Bright has an interesting reply to a perception of the piece.

It's disingenous of Ms. Slaughter to imagine this story is about her. She has had it all. She's done everything she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it— once she escaped HER gilded cage. Was she ever in one of those? I don't know. At her level of adult privilege, she certainly hasn't been held back. Young people deserve bold chances— all our children deserve that support. Our "work," ultimately, is toward the betterment of the world for our children, and for their children. That's what's upside-down in our world right now— the vanity of the short-sighted, the hubris of elders who destroy the future for youth. You want a movement for "having it all?" Start by giving it back, in spades.

(The article, at least what I've seen of it, seems to indicate that individual adjustments to make it possible to give work and family the time needed to do both jobs well are not enough; "society" needs to adjust its demands on people so they can have both a work life and a family life [someone mentioned somewhere that men don't "have it all," either] without scanting one or the other.  How to get that entity to act is left as an exercise for the reader.)

ETA:  Twisty Faster brings up another point.

Calling the Question

1. Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast wants to know:  Why does no one in the Democratic Party admit that Alan Grayson was right all along?
   
   Several of the people I read would point out that the Democratic Party, or at least the upper-echelon policy people are in collusion with the plutocrats oligarchs the ruling class Peter O'Toole conservatives to destroy democracy in this country.  It does look like that.  The demonstrated fecklessness and occasional snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory that irritates the parts of Blogtopia (thanks, skippy!) that I visit might encourage belief in the sort of shadowy conspiracy that gladdens the heart of Dan Brown's readers.
   
   However, I don't believe in conspiracy theories.
   
   Look at it this way:  the set of "Democrats" (encompassing people, their beliefs, their voting records, and their stated positions on Issues of the Day) and the set of "liberals" (ditto) overlap.  Overlap largely, even.  But not perfectly.  The sets of "liberals" and "leftists" don't overlap perfectly, any more than the sets of "conservatives" and "fascists," although the differences may not be evident without study.
   
   Large political parties have institutional history and entrenchment working mostly in their favor but also weighing them down.  (This is actually reflected in the symbols; Thomas Nast was pretty smart.  Elephant ponderous; donkey stubborn.  What?)  And a large part of the problem with entrenchment is that any changes -- any changes at all -- are going to be firmly and violently resisted, refused, rejected, and rebuked, if necessary.
   
   (Which sortakinda explains 2008 in that there was enough desperation to get somebody to head the party who actually was interested in winning elections, but also enough negative entropy to dismiss him as soon after the 2008 elections as could be construed as decent.  Strictly my take on it.  Have a saltcellar.)
   
   Some of the entrenched are the so-called Blue Dog Democrats, the folks who are nominally members of the Democratic Party who vote with Republicans, like relief pitchers who load the bases with walks when their team is ahead by three runs.  Some of the entrenched have simply been there since -- all right, not since the dinosaurs -- the '70s, which means that they've endured more Republican administrations than Democratic.  Some of them may well be in denial about where the [political] party is.
   
   Ugh.  The conspiracy theory is beginning to look logical.
2. Via skippy, we get a look at Christian fundamentalist homeschooling and how it may be failing children.
3. Also via skippy:  Media consolidation in graphic form.

Breton Baritone in Britain

Mrs. Robinson calls on pro-choice men to stand up:

But even as we're getting an aggrieved earful from the full chorus of patriarchal bullies, our own pro-choice men have receded into the background of the conversation, to the point where they have no voice at all. Worse: these sweet guys think that by holding their tongues, they're doing us a favor. After all, they understand that getting pregnant is a lot like that old joke about your ham-and-eggs breakfast: the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed. At the end of the day, the decision to carry on or terminate a pregnancy must, by moral right, remain in women's hands -- because while men are involved, women are committed, body and soul.

Men still enjoy the luxury of being able to choose their level of parental engagement. Some walk away and never see their baby. Others dedicate the rest of their lives to their kid's welfare. Which path they choose is totally their decision, and they can (and do) reconsider that relationship at any time, at will.

Women have no such choice. Once we're pregnant, we're in it, full-on, for the next 20 years, whether we want to be or not. Since we don't enjoy the wide leeway men are granted on the engagement front, it's essential that we maintain control of the one choice we do have -- that is, whether or not to go forward with the pregnancy at all.

Comments closed here because frankly, I can't be bothered.  Comments elsewhere about this post will be zapped.  I Have Spoken.

At Last...

Remember my mention of an article in Harper's on campaign finance?  It's now online, at least for now.

A taste:

Here we begin to see the real consequence of all this getting and spending. It’s not that campaign money has direct power over the public mind—that one advertising dollar can be counted upon to yield one vote. Nor is it true that the public is invulnerable, that we judiciously weigh these messages and see through the lies. The problem is that by putting such a price tag on the White House, we have imported market logic directly into our politics. Yes, even the village socialist will still get to vote, not to mention the village idiot. But in order to be a candidate—to be the kind of person who can make those calls to billionaires and get them to “double down”—Americans will have to undergo a far more rigorous process of ideological winnowing and executive training. And anyone who isn’t an absolute zealot about maximizing shareholder value will fail to make the cut.

We may be in trouble...

1801

Arthur Silber does a lot of what I refer to elsewhere as "deep background dot-connecting," or the ways and reasons in which stuff from the past relates to what goes on now.  There's a vast swath of history that we know different bits and pieces about, and having more of the bits and pieces helps with the deductive reasoning that makes believing conservative fantasies exceedingly difficult.

His current series gets at the media and general public complicity in governmental frog-boiling, with examples.  (Contains links to the previous three parts.)

Although I have read fairly extensively about the rise of the Nazis, I would hardly say that I am an expert on the subject. But I have thought a great deal about the general issues involved, and about the dynamics that explain why people in many historical periods and places have so blithely accepted the steps by which their society descends into hell.

(Incidentally, I'm coming to think that invoking Godwin has done a disservice. The Nazis really were that bad.)

As usual, he'd appreciate some aid.  (Bonus:  Conversation with cat.)

Another!

Rich guy attempting to buy an election.

Some might argue, I guess, that if a conservative like Adelson wants to spend a billion dollars, well, a liberal billionaire can counterbalance him. But this misses the point. The rich, conservatives and liberals alike, have interests that the rest of us do not share. Billionaires, whether conservative or liberal, cannot be expected to truly look out for the interests of the poor. A democracy in which elections are fought on the terrain the rich create with their unlimited campaign contributions is not much of a democracy at all.

I take bribes (said hopefully); send one hundred thousand dollars in cash, and I'll tell lies back the plutocrats to the hilt.  (No, not for less, I'm not into haggling.)

Meanwhile, a famous bank behaves badly (via skippy).

In Memoriam

Victor Spinetti, whose long career on stage and screen pales next to "star of Beatles films."
Elinor Ostrom, winner of Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science.

Today...

is Paul McCartney's 70th birthday.

It's also what I'm calling Alice Cooper Day (this year) because I realized on my way home this morning that the crossing guards weren't there and into my head popped "Schooooool's out for summer!"

And two hundred years ago the War of 1812 was declared, although they weren't calling it that then.

Later this week comes the summer solstice and the celebration at Chapel of the Chimes.  Oh, boy!

"Drunk With Power" Not a Metaphor

Apparently, for some, having power is "disinhibiting."

1 Kings 19:11-13:

11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

[King James Version]

I have noticed for several years that noisy people tend not to have much power, or, to put it differently, the less power someone has, the more likely they are to be loud to get attention.  Seriously, although some racket may be a class thing, generally people not "privileged" tend to be loud.  It's observable in the wild.

The moneyed and powerful...are quiet.  The Lord...is hushed.

Apparently I Forgot to Crosspost

 Matt Cain for the San Francisco Giants.  22nd ever.  Second this year.  [ETA:  Yesterday.]

*Does Perfect Game Dance*

Habeas Corpus Matters

A quote:

Adel has been in prison for four years. Not only is he innocent, we rewarded the men who condemned him. This sort of thing used to exist in Russia. In the France of the Terror, it was called denouncing. I suppose we are better than Revolutionary France, we; after all, aren't sending the denounced to Madame Guillotine, but rather keeping them in cells, depriving them of human contact, isolating them from family, religion and the world.

Pecunium on the injustices being committed in the name of the war on terror by this country. It's eloquent. It's not a petit-four. Read it.  And then let's talk about making officials understand that they need to correct this situation NOW.

Bad Study. No Biscuit!

Mark Regnerus (could his name be coincidental?) published the findings of a study on children of parents who've had same-sex relationships.  (Link is to the published article at ScienceDirect.com; original publication in Social Science Research, July 2012, 41:4, pp.752-770.)  He also has a follow-up article in Slate in which he pushes his conclusions hard.

Jed Hartman disputes the context:

Furthermore, the discussion about this child-raising issue presents a false dichotomy. It suggests that a given child has two choices: to be raised by their biological parents (who are married to each other), or to be raised by a same-sex couple. In actual reality, those are very rarely the choices. In most cases where there's a child who's about to be raised by a same-sex couple, the chance of that kid being raised by married bio-parents is extremely low. If you want to make the outcome for that kid as good as it can be, and your options are to demonize the parents or support them, which one do you think is better for that particular kid?

 PhoenixWoman disputes the definition of "same-sex relationships" (see the headline for the not-correct blooper).

When William Saletan (also in Slate) pokes at your methodology, your study design is pretty flawed.  (See Box Turtle Bulletin for serious critique.)

The Past is Prologue

Arthur Silber holds up the mirror of history and bids you look.

...[I]f I have identified one issue that may prove to be of special value, it is my analysis of the ways in which the formation of a tribal identity is inextricably and inevitably tied to Alice Miller's discussion of how the most commonly accepted methods of raising children -- and teaching them the primacy of obedience to authority above all -- severely impair or even destroy a child's sense of genuine, autonomous personal identity.[Emphasis added.]

It Finally Happened

T-shirt on the street:  "I NEVER THOUGHT I'D MISS NIXON"

One of the problems with conservative women is that apparently they believe that the policies they champion shouldn't apply to them, but they accept gains won by, well, non-conservatives without blinking and probably think they are entitled to same.

Pamela Merritt points at one of that ilk.

Akin and Brunner’s willingness to cede the rights of working women is bad enough, but I’m gonna focus on Steelman for a special correction because Sarah Steelman’s politician self has always benefited from the protections she just said she didn’t think American women deserve.

In Memoriam

Bob Welch, singer and guitarist (and former member of Fleetwood Mac).

Link is to "Hypnotized" (on YouTube), which got played on smooth jazz stations, which is where I used to hear it.

They Never Will Be Missed

Many of you may have engaged in an exercise I once utilized regularly and purposefully: reading about the latest controversy and predicting in detail how liberal and conservative writers would treat it. If you understand the dynamics involved, you will almost never be wrong. This is why, for me, one of the greatest rewards in reading is the treasurable moment when I am utterly astonished by what a writer says, when I think: "That's absolutely fascinating! That never occurred to me! How wonderful that she could explain it!" I note that this is one of my greatest rewards in reading fiction as well as non-fiction (the terms of the reaction to fiction are somewhat different, but the phenomenon is the same), and in viewing all art -- and in life itself. The moment when we see a connection that had escaped us, when a light suddenly illuminates an issue we hadn't understood, can be one of inexpressible joy.

Arthur Silber, in the midst of condemning the presidential kill list.

Having a little list is one thing.  Acting on it is serious drunkenness-with-power.

Tippy Toes

Are 7 billion (7,000,000,000) people "tipping" the planet in the direction of we-know-not-what?

Because, if so, we need Klaatu or some of those cautionary aliens that used to pop up.

So. Wisconsin.

Before I get started here, I need to mention Iran.

Remember Iran?  In 1978, the Shah (remember the Shah?  Reza Pahlavi?  He came to power in the '50s by way of a CIA coup because the guy the Iranians elected scared them.  Came back to bite them, that did) was clinging to power (he was also sick, which didn't help him) against many factions that didn't like him (and which he imprisoned, which gave them even more reason to oppose him).  At some point he became so odious to so many that they started supporting one Ayatullah Khomeini, who was if I remember correctly living in Paris and sending tapes to the faithful, even though a lot of his stated stands were disliked by some of the opposition.  He was the one that most could agree on as an alternative to the sheer evil of the Peacock Throne.

OK, we know how that turned out.

The lesson I took away from that is:  Make sure that you're not supporting the challenger just because anyone would be better than That Bum you're trying to depose.  I'm sure other politically-aware people came to different conclusions.

So.  Wisconsin.  Which had a recall election yesterday with ominous results.

And now, 120 years later, progressive-minded folks still smarting from last night's recall election of the most staggeringly, shockingly and stupendously corrupt Governor since Huey Long have two choices: To conclude that Wisconsin is either now the stupidest or the most insane state in the union, proving, if Florida in 2000 already hadn't, that Democracy is not a synonym for intelligence, informed voting or even a sane political system. And Citizen's United ensured last night that democracy has little to do with the will and voice of the biological individual and much, much more to do with that of corporate individuals.

Taken from jurassicpork's post referencing Wisconsin Death Trip, voting-day skulduggery, and money.

Money played a large part in the election.  Twistedchick has the story.  With statistics.  Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast puts the blame squarely on the Democrats; she also has a short bit on labor unions and a law firm seeking lawyers for $10,000/year.

I would add to this also that Americans have really grown to dislike and distrust labor unions, especially public sector unions. The reality that without the history of labor unions, there would be no 40-hour workweek and no minimum wage and no paid vacation has been completely obscured by high-profile battles over teacher contracts and hundreds of thousands of accumulated sick time payouts. When an ever-increasing number of Americans have been bumped from the full-time-permanent-job model and into non-guaranteed contract work that offers lower pay, no paid time off, and makes them completely dispensable at a moment's notice, it's difficult to get them to put together that part of the reason for this is that we turned our back on labor unions long ago after winning many of the perks for which they fought for decades.  [Emphasis added, mine.]

It doesn't help that all too often, being in a labor union is like working for two sets of management, neither of which has your best interests in mind. My two experiences with being in a labor union are not exactly the stuff of which strong support is made either. In the mid-1970's, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen had me on strike for an entire summer, lest I be blacklisted from working at the A&P the NEXT summer. And in the 1980's, the Newspaper Guild blocked my promotion into a non-union management position even though I would be replaced by a union employee. But if you want to know what a society without labor unions and the wage protections they represent looks like, you need only to look at Gilbert & O'Bryan, a Boston law firm[.]

(Side note:  The "front page" blurb at the New York Times contains the following sentence which is not true and not in the article to which it links:

The campaign to oust Gov. Scott Walker was heavily aided by President Obama’s party, his campaign team and his labor allies, but proved ineffective against a well-funded and organized Republican apparatus.

It's actually an analysis piece (I got a screen shot in case that sentence gets edited later), but that statement rather mischaracterized the forces involved.)

To some, by the way, it probably looked like an attempt to rerun the 2010 election, since Mr. Barrett, Mayor of Milwaukee, was the candidate then, too.  Thing is, though, Barrett lost by less than 10 percent of the vote; the people of Wisconsin lost big.  Because it is now known that elections there can be bought; any haggling would be about price.

(Yes, I had an idea when I sat down to type.  It's now sunning itself in Acapulco.)

ETA:

1. Echidne of the Snakes has more on the subject.
2. What I may have been thinking was that recalling Walker was only half the problem and that the local folks were divided over both what would succeed Walker and the need to replace him.  The voters had other ideas.
3. And don't say "class war."  (The New Yorker.  On the American allergy to class analysis and conservative union-busting.)  

In Memoriam

Ray Bradbury.

Via Making Light.  Because 2 major newspapers hadn't yet gotten the news.

(Of course I'm upset.  His age notwithstanding, he was my formal introduction to science fiction (I had read some other things, but at the library I frequented as a teenager, he was the first author whose work I glommed onto before all others.  Which, yes, in a world where Fahrenheit 451 is required reading, is incomprehensible), and even though I would probably find some of the stories I read with such pleasure as a young 'un itchy-making now, I would still recommend his books.)

ETA:  New York Times now has an obituary, written by Gerald Jonas, who used to review sf in the Book Review section (I am being kind.)

All The Way

1. Walker survives recall election.  From the Mercury Rising article:

   This is why Democrats care so little about their liberal base. That base makes up a declining fraction of contributions (thanks to the destruction of the middle class) and a not very important part of the electorate, because they are failing to connect with the broader population. This is sad because liberal policy, especially economic policy, is generally pretty sensible. But great ideas go nowhere unless they have a good sales pitch.

2. Marriage equality fight inches toward the Supreme Court. Daisy had the following picture from Yellowdog Granny, and it is appropriate:
   
   
   

The Wall Addressed a Somewhat Different System

I want to spotlight [TW:  language] this conclusion:

And they’d have switched over years ago if it wasn’t for you and your band of Know-Nothings screaming and wailing every time someone tried to teach actual information in schools.

But hey, that’s apparently okay as long as the kids today get the same inaccurate, inefficient, and boring methods of teaching that produced the incurious, angry at change morons that write for American Thinker. Cause if it was good enough for them, then the kids will damn well suffer the same fate and like it!

Because the rest of the Sadly, No! article is slapping conservative sniping about education.  (Point for point, like whack-a-mole.  "Bill Ayres is a Time Lord," indeed.)

(Less "It's a cookbook!" and "Soylent Green is people!" and more "Someone as smart as you shouldn't pay no attention to all that book-learning."  Have I mentioned just how deep the tendency toward anti-intellectualism in the U. S. runs?  Not that intellectuals are blameless in the matter, what with the privilege and the snobbery, but people who'd prefer to be stupid scare me.)

Hints

• Margaret, the Republicans are trying to get into my vagina again. I wish I knew what was up there that they find so interesting.

  Margaret and Helen (well, Helen) on a reproductive red herring.
  
• Arthur Silber speculates on a future:

  ENORD: Now, Johnny, I'm not sure you want to use a loaded word like "murder." Why would you use a word like that?
  
  MEBBENUTS: Doug, not one of the relocated prisoners has ever been seen again. What do you think is happening to them? I know that almost no one cared when the government murdered "bad" people overseas, but I expected that at least a few more people would care when it started happening here at home. I guess I was wrong about that. The logic of the government's own argument is that the prisoners are being eliminated.

  (Why yes, it does remind me of "!!!The!!Teddy!Crazy!!Show!!!")
• I am fascinated that a sizable number of this blog's readers are in Indonesia.  Hi!
• ETA:  The Rude Pundit on Democratic "strategists" throwing the game (that's "point-shaving" if you're a basketball fan).  Well, that explains dismissing Howard Dean after 2008; he was too successful.

Two Things

1. On efforts to restrict the vote:

   The stated rationale for these measures is that we need to prevent voter fraud. The essential context that you need to know is that there is no voter fraud on a meaningful scale. It does not exist. George W. Bush's justice department spent years aggressively pursuing it and they couldn't find any. As much as many people may like to believe voter fraud is rampant, talking about it incessantly on talk radio does not make it so.

2. Words to live by (same source, different day):

   I cannot, at the same time, deeply feel the grace of God and look down on another person.

Scatterbrained Day

1. On the absentee ballot for the primaries, one of the candidates for a state office--one of the Republican candidates--was Orly Taitz.  Let me just say that if she turns up on the ballot in the general election I will have one more reason to think less of Republicans than I do of cockroaches.  (As to what I think of cockroaches, I am a New Yorker.  'Nuff said.)
2. Why you have to question the premises of surveys and polls.  The phrasing of the inquiry/statement matters.
3. Hypocrisy as a good:  "...say what you will of hypocrisy, at least it leaves open the possibility of an ethos."  Via Making Light.  Scott Horton on the President's Kill List.
4. Scott Horton poses 6 questions to Jesselyn Radack, former ethics advisor; she cites a case you may remember:

   I then advised that the tainted interrogation should not be used against him in a criminal prosecution. Again my advice was disregarded, and it later disappeared from the office file while the Justice Department was under a court order to produce it.

5. Homeowner's Revolt.
6. Scott Walker under criminal investigation.
7. Higher education in California imperiled by budget cuts.

The rant evaporated, unfortunately.

No-No, Nanette Santana

Johan Santana just pitched the first no-hitter in Mets history!

Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast is over the moon.

(Fred Clark at Slacktivist had it first!)

ETA:  Metsgrrl was there!!!!