In Memoriam

Pete Seeger, singer, songwriter, environmental and peace activist.

One of my neighbors has a bumper sticker promoting Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Not gonna happen now.

ETA:  Jurassicpork bites Grover Norquist on the incivility leg:

The next time one of the sons or daughters of Ronald Reagan accuses the left of incivility when one of their own war-mongering, tax-dodging icons shits the bed, think of asswipes like Grover Norquist jiggling his pudgy body in a spastic jig over the undug grave of progressive heroes like Pete Seeger, who died at 94.

There's a reason why folk singers are invariably progressive and are never Republican. When did Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs or Bob Dylan ever sing songs glorifying Exxon or any multibillion dollar multi-national corporation? It would never occur to a Republican to become a folk singer because that would mean having to, you know, actually embrace and take up the causes concerning common folk since time immemorial.

Bonus: Comrade Misfit has a video playlist up.

Supplemental Reading

Because frankly, I didn't get why Spider-Man's costume became Venom, either.

• Installation of obedience in children and where that leads:  Arthur Silber calls out the government and its representatives.
• The high conical headdress for medieval/Renaissance women was not a European invention.
• Yeah, he said "Class war." Bill Moyers on, well, class war. 

  We don’t have emperors yet, but one of our two major parties is now dominated by radicals engaged in a crusade of voter suppression aimed at the elderly, the young, minorities and the poor; while the other party, once the champion of everyday working people, has been so enfeebled by its own collaboration with the donor class that it offers only token resistance to the forces that have demoralized everyday Americans.

• Americans are being cheated out of their retirement money, and no, privatization is as usual not the answer.
• Dumbing us down?
• s. e. smith has an interesting essay on "sex strikes"--ie, Lysistrata et al.

And now I can close all those tabs.  Phew.

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, 2014

• Via Shakesville, the I Have A Dream video, in case you need a reminder of the power that speech contained.  (Shakesville has a transcript.)  I'm playing it right now.
• Jesse Curtis looks at Dr. King's words and the present.

  Dr. King spoke of the interrelated problems of racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism--problems that were so embedded in the fabric of American life that they compromised the very structure of society. We modern Americans, appropriately colorblind and tolerant, believe that we've fulfilled the promise of the Black freedom struggle by...wait for it...being nice to each other.

[crossposted]

You Thought I Was Kidding

Via Zandar Versus The Stupid:  Wisconsin Republicans propose 7 day work week.  (Raw Story.)

You didn't believe me when I said conservatives want to steal your weekends.

Weekends are not, apparently, sacrosanct.  You want to keep having them, you're going to have to fight.  Now.

Yahrzeit

Yahrzeit.

Hall of Fame Honorees, 2014

Messrs. Glavine, Maddux and Thomas.

Pitchers and Catchers Report is before Ash Wednesday this year!  36 days!

Letter and Spirit

1. Jesse Curtis on what the Bible actually says about poverty, with quotes from The Big Guy:

   It is not hard to see that such practices are rampant in our culture. Just think of the schemes of the banks, mortgage companies, and payday lenders. But the more subtle practices the Bible so wisely notes are present here too, and we are implicated in them. The norm in American culture is to live in the best community one can afford, putting as much distance between us and the poor as money will provide. The rich do indeed have many friends, while the poor suffer for want of connections. The Bible speaks of such states of affairs not as age-old ways of the world that we must resign ourselves to, but as expressions of cultures nearing the extreme limits of depravity. When God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah to decry extreme evil he focused on treatment of the most marginal members of the society[.]

2. Having, eating, and complaining about one's cake.

   “Ma’am, if we were closed today, how would you get these things you’re buying right now?”

Probably not a Journey to God post.

In Memoriam

Phil Everly.

I grew up with the Everly Brothers in my ears.  It was always easy to understand the lyrics, even when I didn't understand the lyrics (I didn't get why little Susie couldn't just sleep for the longest time).  They were pretty much the standard for two-part harmony.

COPD.  "Lifetime of cigarette smoking."  Yeah.

[News first seen at Making Light.]