Cultural Death

From the Daily Howler:

Taibbi was helping us liberals laugh at the rubes in the other tribe. But just how dumb do you have to be to miss the problem with his “reasoning?” Taibbi was playing an old refrain, in which we laugh at the Tea Party folk for being such blooming hypocrites about the role of government.

and

Is something wrong with New Jersey’s teachers? It isn’t easy to say, of course. But on the NAEP, statewide test scores have risen from 1992 to 2009. As a matter of fact, Garden State scores have risen a lot, and they exceed the national average among all major groups. But don’t expect to hear such twaddle when you watch Williams strut and fret his tailored suits across the stage. In an earlier era, Williams and his gruesome network were devoted to trashing the Clintons, then Gore. Now, the network is trashing the teachers.

Daisy has already slapped Mr. Taibbi around (deservedly so) so I'll forbear except to note that Mr. Somerby's sarcasm does occasionally get up my nose.  And I am sarcastic enough to shrivel lemons when I get going.  The second quote is from his series of essays on why comparing the US to Finland doesn't work very well.

In Memoriam

Tony Curtis, actor.

So that's what happened.

Anyway...

Via metsgrrl, Greg Prince writes an elegy and kvetch about the Mets and their history, particularly with fan relations.

That didn’t get used in the movie, but I thought of it again after seeing the film a third time. Citi Field seamlessly (albeit with a little psychic kicking and screaming) has taken over as my destination, even if it could never quite fill the role as brilliantly as Shea. Citi Field was destined to be Roger Moore to Shea’s Sean Connery. Yet it’s where I go as much as I can. I don’t dream about it the same way, I don’t reflexively answer that it’s where I want to be. If there’s a threat of rain before a game to which I hold a ticket, I still say something to the effect of “I’m going to check the weather at Shea,” not to be contrary, but just because that’s where I’ve always looked.

(No, I haven't.  Clinching has happened [the Twins!  The Reds!  Texas!  Philadelphia!], but I've been distracted lately; also, my team [rebuilding decade, remember] is prevented from achieving the cellar only because the team currently occupying last place has moved in with deck chairs and a barbecue pit.)

Speaking of Photographing Gorgons

"There is nothing I can teach you." is not equal to "I won't learn from you."

Daisy's Dead Air links to two articles on the Tea Parties and their views.  I am afraid that my inner great-grandma thinks those people need castor oil and to clean out their systems.

Look;  libertarianism, or what was considered small government, has been tried.  It was called the 19th Century, and it was pretty ugly.

Encouragement, Chastisement, and a Spider-Man Allusion

Prof. Susurro on leading students to think, in small steps.

Then I remind them that school is about learning to ask questions you might not otherwise ask or even know to ask. It is about learning to be critical thinkers and taking responsibility for what thinking critical reveals about our world. Everyone has choices and everyone can make a difference regardless of their politics. It is also at this point in the class, that I challenge them to do what other students have already been modeling, get involved in our communities and bring in opportunities to be involved locally and globally to class.

[crossposted]

Ahoy, Me Hearties!

Guess what today is?

I usually forget and have to utter an "Aarrrrrrrh!" or two the following day, but this time I got the memo.

(Graphic borrowed from Dr. Grumpy.)

Oh, And...

The Root interviews Rep. Barbara Lee.

Quote of the Day

Can we please stop this nonsense that if you Just Work Hard Enough, you'll be successful and get into the rich guys club? It's been depressing over the last thirty years watching working people buy into this stupidity and then find themselves scrambling to keep a roof over their heads. And yet they still believe it. They believe it because the Horatio Alger mythos pervades every part of our society. But for every guy who nails together two things that have never been nailed together before (h/t George Carlin) and finds enough schmucks to buy it from him to become a millionaire, there's a spoiled trust fund baby who rises through the ranks after starting at Vice President because his father golfs with the CEO; and there's a million guys who go to work at a mind- and body-numbing job every day for thirty years and then die of a heart attack at sixty.

Jill, of course.

Various and Sundry

People were productive! Since this is a yahrzeit. the obits go first.

• In memoriam:
  
  1. Arrow, soca musician;
  2. Dr. Ronald Walters, scholar and activist (Ta-Nehisi Coates also has memories of him);
  3. Varnette Honeywood, artist; and
  4. Edwin Newman, newsman and grammarian.
• Why men shouldn't be allowed to drink. OK, that's a conclusion drawn from one case and is not indicated from anything in the story. Y'know, what David Brooks and Maureen Dowd do. Can I have their job? (Obviously, I'd need to rail nonsensically for 800 words first, but that's easy enough.)
• Elle at Shakesville writes on the "discovery" of "ethnic beauty." (Why yes, I did see the article, and yet my screen is intact; I have great control. You wouldn't like it when I lose control.)
• Mr. Coates considers a book for the Effete Liberal Book Club, with a selected quote and video of an interview with the author.
• Dave Hingsburger (yes, I do link to him a lot, don't I? But I enjoy his writing) on a cycle of activism not much noted. (I, on the other hand, wonder if in humans that is a bug...or a feature.)
• And Jill of Brilliant at Breakfast begins a serious essay the way I like--talking some baseball.

I'm sure there was something else. Ah. Yes. This. I admire the hell out of this writer, by the way.

Now: Maybe if a beloved and popular grad student writes the proper meta-analysis of Triangle Shirtwaist, replete with jargon that, oh, my God, do you academic douchebags EVER think to keep in check for even a second?—Even A SECOND?—then, one day, sure; but for now, no. It’s just a little too banal and played out, all those women dying.

Meh. Let me tell you some more about Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift. That is Important Journalism, for sure.

So I guess I have to crosspost this. (Crossposted)

Yahrzeit

Yahrzeit.

Why Conservatives Don't Like You

Just as mortgage relief that might have kept people in their homes was opposed because it might have helped the “wrong” people, and health care reform was vehemently opposed because it might help the “wrong” people, so have any efforts to alleviate the suffering of millions of unemployed Americans — let alone serious investment in job creation — run into intent opposition from conservative.

It all boils down to the supposed danger of “moral hazard,” and the belief that people in need of help might not change their ways if they don’t suffer enough for their moral failings — failings which are indicated by their need for help in the first place.

Republic of T poses three questions we should be asking ourselves:  Can we?  Should we? and What do we mean, 'we'?

Nice meaty stuff with examples.

Speaking of "Speaking of Rare First Editions"

Scott Horton reports on Operation Dark Heart, the book mentioned here.

This account leaves a key player in the shadows. JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, has become a power unto itself within the Pentagon. In essence, Shaffer’s book went through the regular review and clearance process, was approved for publication, and then JSOC had a temper tantrum. The thrust of their objection was simple: “Our people don’t talk about JSOC operations, period.” In their view, special forces officers are subject to a code of silence. This view would seem to clash with the U.S. Constitution, and the notion of a duty to be silent also seems odd in a Pentagon headed by Robert Gates, who built his Washington comeback on a tell-all bestseller, From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story.

We do so talk about Fight Club!

Bits

1. High fructose corn syrup to be renamed because too many people are now avoiding it.
   

   Parents such as Joan Leib scour ingredient labels and won't buy anything with it. The mother of two in Somerville, Mass., has been avoiding the sweetener for about a year to reduce sweeteners in her family's diet.
   "I found it in things that you would never think needed it, or should have it," said Leib, 36. "I found it in jars of pickles, in English muffins and bread. Why do we need extra sweeteners?"

2. In memoriam:  Eileen Nearne.  Heroine.

Monday, Monday (Ba-daaa, ba-da-da-da)

Charlie Stross on our current case of future shock.

Apparently Dinesh D'Souza (a conservative whose utterances and writings I find Claptrap and Not Remotely Believable) bloviated about President Obama, and Newt Gingrich (who I have to remind myself is not really related to "Whiplash Willie" from The Fortune Cookie) went Yeah! Yeah, that!  And Yellow Dog in comments at an article at the Washington Monthly (Avedon saw it and linked; I almost never look at the Washington Monthly unless Avedon points me at it), pointed out that those two had as usual used words they don't understand.  Heh.

Oh, for pity's sake - what kind of history professor doesn't know what anti-colonial means?

The original anti-colonialists are the Founders.

America is a colony that defeated its colonial masters.

To be American is to be anti-colonial.

ETA: And Ta-Nehisi Coates brings some evidence as to why anti-colonialism is a good thing and was particularly necessary in Kenya, in fact.

The Solano Stroll was fun, but I missed the art cars this year.

In Memoriam

Kevin McCarthy, actor.

110 Stories

110 Stories, by John M. Ford.

Calling It By Its Name

Laura Flanders invokes the spirit of "Fighting Bob" La Follette and uses the words "class war" at AlterNet's Speakeasy.  With video.

Speaking of Rare First Editions

The Department of Defense is negotiating to buy up and destroy all copies of a book containing military secrets.  No, really.

A Message to the Florida Book-Burner

Some words from the Dude you claim to worship:

27 "But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
29 To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.
30 Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.
31 And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.
32 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.
36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
37 "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
38 give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

Just saying.

(Luke 6:27-38.  Coincidentally, that was today's Gospel reading.  It's kind of mean of me to hope that someone will bring it to his attention.)

In Unions, There is Strength

Michael Moore's history lesson, directed at Rahm Emmanuel, who has taken to channeling Dick Cheney.

Many uses of the f-word.

Via Republic of T.

Some of Those Old Games Go Way Back...

Bank shenanigans in Afghanistan, as described by Jon Carroll.

To Those Who Celebrate It

L'shanah tovah!


(Note to JB:  I also have a Dreamwidth account (link to profile).)

No Way to Treat a Fan

Or: Why Metsgrrl and TBF will not be renewing their ticket plan.

Tech Sector Wreckage

The IT job situation and why it isn't recovering, with certain lies job seekers hear.

IT was like that in those days. The ability to learn quickly, a willingness to just jump in, initiative, some smarts -- that was all you needed.

Not today. Today, you can teach yourself out of a book till the cows come home. You can have skills in fourteen different programming languages, and if you are missing the fifteenth, you are out of luck. Ads for IT people contain a laundry list of skills that no one person can possibly have, because they involve completely different kinds of left brain/right brain dominance. You'll see ads for someone who has experience in a dozen programming languages, who's an experienced network administrator, a computer security expert, a graphic designer, a technical writer, and a trainer. And that's an ad for one job.

None of these jobs exist, of course. They are designed to have nobody qualify for them so that companies can wail that there just aren't enough qualified people and they simiply HAVE to outsource the wrok to countries that pay a dollar an hour at most.

From Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast.

Labor Day 2010

(...and approximately the 1,100th post.)

Essay question for Tea Party enthusiasts:  You have 2-day weekends and paid vacations because ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Supplemental reading:  Mills River Progressive on what happened while we were busy making other plans.  Lisa at Black Magpie Theory on labor unions and Americans.  Any Charles Dickens novel (yes, they're long.  If you can get through Stephen King or the Twilight saga, you can get through Dickens.  Where do you think they learned their craft?).  Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast.

Infighting

A leftist on leftist "solidarity."  And then the comments go way off track.

Core Truths

1. But there is a deeper, more fundamental reason for these attempts by editorial writers in major newspapers to rehabilitate Ken Mehlman to be rejected. Beneath all civil rights struggle, at the very base of all struggles for rights and democracy there is the core moral value of equality. And equality is not a partial or sometimes thing. You don’t get to carve out an island of privilege for yourself, your family, your social circle or your minority group and have a right to call for everyone to acknowledge that attempt to equalize yourself with a privileged group. There is nothing easier than to be for the civil rights that you and your group are denied as you ignore other inequity. While the Republican Party is using hatred of Latinos, Moslems, the poor the destitute and numerous other groups as their central organizing tactic, I reject the attempt by even the well-intentioned members of the elite to obtain that status for the Ken Mehlmans who they went to school with, who they socialize with and who has access to the centralized power of the political and corporate elite.

   Anthony McCarthy at Echidne of the Snakes, who goes on to explain why he's not going "There, there, you poor thing" at Ken Mehlman.
2. Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast offers up commentary around a piece by Eugene Robinson, the speech Walter Mondale gave in 1984, and the beginning of Lee Atwater's career:
   

   You'd think that Democrats would have learned from that. I realize that people who lean left tend to imagine a world that could be, the very shining city on a hill that Reagan only talked about but did little to achieve. We like to think that people are basically good, that their better natures can be appealed to even in times of crisis, that great things can be accomplished when we are just honest and true and work together. All this shows you what kind of chumps we are. Because Republicans know better. For every image of a gang of ironworkers marching down to Ground Zero from their work site with tears streaming down their cheeks becasue they want to put their muscles towards doing what they can to help, for every white person who stood side by side with black Americans fighting for equal rights in 1963, for every man who has helped escort women into women's health clinics, for every Aaron Feuerstein, who continued to pay his employees even after his factory burned down, there are a hundred people, their faces twisted with hate, sitting in their comfortable homes, listening to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and others blaming someone for their plight.

3. Fred Pohl won the Best Fanwriter Hugo (list of other winners included)!

This has been a very Spirit-filled morning,

How to Discuss Things with Hostile Audiences: Two Examples

• "Five Ways to Talk to the Left About Same-Sex Marriage," by Eric Pavlat, whom I may know in real life, at InsideCatholic.com.
• "Five ways to talk to the religious right about marriage," by Jesurgislac at Jesurgislac's Journal.

And Why Am I Not Surprised?

Foreclosures and voting:  The grey zone.