Great Quote

"And then, almost everywhere, a clear and subtle illumination that lent magnificence to life and peace to death was overwhelmed in the hard glare of technology. Yes that light is always present, like stars of noon. Man must perceive it if he is to transcend his fear of meaninglessness, for no amount of "progress" can take its place. We have outsmarted ourselves, like greedy monkeys, and now we are full of dread." -Peter Matthiessen

Pakistan involved in Mumbai attacks?

So far the Pakistani are denying any involvement in the Mumbai terrorists attacks and are swearing to take action if any of the terrorists are Pakistani-based militants. But here's the problem:

The(Indian) government called a crisis cabinet meeting on Saturday, a day after Indian officials suggested that a militant group with Pakistani ties, Lashkar-e-Taiba, was responsible for the attacks.

If the Indian government finds out Lashkar-e-Taiba is responsible, how will they respond? Since India became a state in 1950 and Pakistan formed their own Muslim government, tensions have been very high, and the smallest thing, I believe, could send the countries into all-out war. Will that happen now? I hope not. But it wouldn't surprise me. And if that happens, it could be a powder keg for a whole lot more...

New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2008

The New York Times just came out with their 100 Notable Books of 2008. Unfortunately, it's a sign about the direction my life is currently going that I have not read any of the books on the list this year (normally I have at least 2.) Anyway, here are a few of the ones I want to read in the near future:

THE BOAT. By Nam Le.
HOME. By Marilynne Robinson.
LUSH LIFE. By Richard Price.
A MERCY. By Toni Morrison.
MODERN LIFE: Poems . By Matthea Harvey.
OUR STORY BEGINS: New and Selected Stories. By Tobias Wolff.
UNACCUSTOMED EARTH. By Jhumpa Lahiri.
HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America. By Thomas L. Friedman.
HOW FICTION WORKS. By James Wood.
THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD. By Fareed Zakaria.
A SECULAR AGE. By Charles Taylor.

Great Film Ending: Federico Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria"

I've been thinking about great endings to movies lately because I recently saw Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights," which I'll discuss more in a later post.

There have have a lot of endings I've truly enjoyed, but one keeps sticking out in my head-- the ending to Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria." The movie itself is not even one of my favorite Fellini movies-- "La Dolce Vita, "La Strada," and a couple of others are far superior in my opinion. But the ending of is perfect in its simplicity and hope.

(If you haven't seen the movie, spoiler alert here) After the main character's heart is broken again and she is left alone and penniless, she takes a walk and runs into a group of children and musicians singing and dancing in the streets. With tears streaming down her face, it's obvious the main character just wants to be alone, but as she sees the joy of the people around her and hears the beautiful music being played around her, her face begins to transform. And then suddenly she smiles-- and what a smile Giulietta Masini has. It could warm anyone. And then without warning she looks right into the camera to the audience. It's something else. Check it out below:

"Another Bullshit Night In Suck City" by Nick Flynn

After nearly 3 months, I just finished "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" by Nick Flynn. I picked up the book because a friend said the main character was so similar to mine in that he was a social worker and aspiring poet in the book. Of course, the main character also has a homeless, alcoholic father in the book, while my dad is sober as can be, but it still made me want to read the book.

Anyway, although I've read few memoirs in my life, "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" is right up there with the best memoirs I've read. The language one-- Flynn has a poet's touch to prose, which is rarely found in most fiction-- is beautiful. Flynn also manages to keep just the right tone throughout; it's never maudlin, when it could have easily been when discussing his mother and father, but it's not cold either. It's the tone of the observer, watching his past life unfold in almost disbelief in the present act of writing.

Flynn's father, Jonathan Flynn, is hardly a likable man. He abandons Nick and his brothers at a very early age, he's an alcoholic, a liar, a criminal and more. And while some of the author's dislike permeates the early pages of the book, you get the sense, as the book comes to a close, that Flynn finally begins to humanize his own father, sees him for the flawed man he is, and is finally able to move on from the pains of the past. The ending, while I don't want to give it away, is a beautiful, perfectly understated and shows us that Flynn, despite it all feels sorry for his father and loves him. It makes both of them unabashedly human and alive to the reader...

Grade: A-

Wal-Mart Worker Trampled To Death This Morning

I saw this on Daily Kos this morning:

A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said.

The unidentified worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him.

Here is what a diarist named trifecta had to say:

I have about had fucking enough. Some poor shlub making $7.00 an hour died so Wal-Mart would reach their sales quota during the holiday season. The crowd literally took the door off it's hinges. Other workers almost suffered the same fate. Hundreds of people stepped over a fellow human being in order to get a play station, or a microwave oven.

An earlier version of this story revealed that several shoppers were also injured, some being led out on stretchers. For what? Some crap that is going to take up space in a garage for years until the next yard sale?

It's fucking enough. Maybe in a way, it's good that our economy is tanking. Several of the big box retailers are going down. We used to have retailers who sold high quality merchandise locally both made in America and often made in countries where the workers may have been underpayed compared to us, but not in such sweat box situations.

It's the most depressing thing in the world to me to think about the start of this chain. There was somebody making .17 cents an hour producing some disposable good in brutal conditions, and some person desperate for seasonal employment even at $7.00 an hour is put in charge of guarding the doors from the throngs in a blood frenzy over an artificial sale on a few items that ends at 10 in the morning (supplies are limited). Johnny NEEDS a new console system, so get there at 3AM or he will hate you forever.

Enough already. There is not anything for sale in Wal-Mart even free that is worth a human life. We should be ashamed of ourselves as a country for lapsing into such mindless consumerism. Even in a time of economic trouble, too many amongst us would rather mindlessly consume than reflect on what the most important things are in life.

I can guarantee it's not Malibu Barbie. This at least I know.

Well obviously, this is a horrible tragedy, and I think trifecta described this horrific event better than I could. What strikes me is what a terrible and perfect metaphor this whole thing is for American consumerism where the ferocious greed of materialism literally takes down anything in its paths without a thought of the consequences. Horrible, horrible shit...

Senator Chris Matthews?

Interesting news coming out today:

Chris Matthews, it appears, is in.

FiveThirtyEight has been hearing for some time that Matthews is serious about running for the United States Senate, but it took a trip to Georgia among the Georgia-runoff-congregated and well-connected Obama organizer throng to confirm.

According to multiple sources, who confirmed the Tip O'Neill staffer-cum-MSNBC host has negotiated with veteran Obama staffers to enlist in his campaign, Chris Matthews is likely to run for United States Senate in Pennsylvania in 2010. Matthews, 62, would run as a Democrat. Arlen Specter, the aging Republican incumbent, will be 80 if he chooses to run for re-election.

Chris Matthews takes a lot of shit from the right and the left (e.g. watch his Daily Show interview), but I happen to be one of those people who actually like the guy. There are very few people who genuinely love and are passionate about their craft as Chris Matthews.

Sure, he goes a little overboard. There were times when it seemed like he wanted to secretly give Barack Obama a blowjob. But in the end, if he is elected senator, I think he would be a good one. It's less about power and more about believing in the American government for Mr. Matthews. And that sort of naive idealism is not such a bad thing in the end.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Enjoy the one truly meaningful holiday of the year with your family and friends...

Dozens Reported Dead in India Attacks

I didn't post today because it's been a busy day, and the holiday is coming up so I thought I'd take a break. But this pretty horrific news got me to blog once today:

NEW DELHI — Coordinated terror attacks struck the heart of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, Wednesday night, killing dozens in machine-gun and grenade assaults on at least two five-star hotels, the city’s largest train station, a movie theater and a hospital.

Mumbai police control room said at least 75 people had died and 240 injured, according to preliminary reports.

Awful stuff. What strikes me is how brazen this is. No one seems to know who did this, but I'll be curious to find out. Is it a crazy Hindu extremist group? Or Islamic terrorist? The second one scares me more, maybe because its threat is bigger to the United States.

Keith Olbermann on Sarah Palin Turkey Slaughter

I know I already brought this up, but I caught Keith Olbermann last night, and it showed him seeing the video for the Sarah Palin turkey slaughter video for the first time. Hilarious.

Ideology could use some help from Buddhism

I was reading Paul Krugman's blog today, and he had a little post about how conservative economists still want to keep the same policies of George W. Bush despite, as Krugman notes, how much those policies have contributed to our current economic crisis:

Thus, John Taylor — a very good economist, when he wants to be — insists that we must respond to the economy’s temporary weakness with a permanent tax cut. Let us reason together. Does it make sense to let one recession dictate tax policy in perpetuity? What happens if there’s a boom; can we increase taxes (no, because then the cut wouldn’t have been permanent.) What if there’s another recession? Do we permanently cut taxes again? Is there a tax-cut ratchet (or maybe racket)? Think this through, and it makes no sense at all...

Recession, recovery, whatever: it’s always proof that the Bush years should continue forever.

Of course, this is hogwash. Not so much because Milton Friedman and his economic buddies don't have some validity to their theories because they certainly do, but because these conservative economists have turned theory into ideology, the well-thought out into divine reasoning.

What's the problem with turning any theory, whether on the left or right, into ideology? A rigidity and lack of flexibility to the problems at hand. Despite the failed policies of George W. Bush, these economists still insist that there way is the best way.

Don't get me wrong, the left has plenty of ideologs as well-- Paul Krugman is pretty much an ideolog himself-- and I personally can sometimes fall victim to this tendency as well.

But my core belief in the end has nothing to do with ideology: It is to believe in nothing (I'm pretty sure I stole this from Zen Buddhism somewhere). What do I mean? Well, only when we believe in nothing, are we open to anything. And only when we are open to anything can we see the world as it really is. Ideologs and intellectuals are rarely open to this. But it is failing we all have some of the time...

In Praise of Melancholy

I read this a couple of months ago and found it to be quite insightful. I have often thought the same thing-- consumer life seems to create a superficial happiness in most of us, including myself, where everything is safe and grounded, where life is a series of dull events without the anxiety that we may all need to feel alive once in awhile. Essentially the author, Eric G. Wilson, tells us to embrace this vagueness and insecurity:

The answer is simple: fear. Most hide behind a smile because they are afraid of facing the world's complexity, its vagueness, its terrible beauties. If we stay safely ensconced behind our painted grins, then we won't have to encounter the insecurities attendant upon dwelling in possibility, those anxious moments when one doesn't know this from that, when one could suddenly become almost anything at all. Even though this anxiety, usually over death, is in the end exhilarating, a call to be creative, it is in the beginning rather horrifying, a feeling of hovering in an unpredictable abyss. Most of us habitually flee from that state of mind, try to lose ourselves in distraction and good cheer. We don inauthenticity as a mask, a disguise to protect us from the abyss.

To foster a society of total happiness is to concoct a culture of fear. Do we really want to give away our courage for mere mirth? Are we ready to relinquish our most essential hearts for a good night's sleep, a season of contentment? We must resist the seductions of mindless happiness and somehow hold to our sadness. We must find a way, difficult though it is, to be who we are, sullenness and all.

Suffering the gloom, inevitable as breath, we must further accept this fact that the world hates: We are forever incomplete, fragments of some ungraspable whole. Our unfinished natures — we are never pure actualities but always vague potentials — make life a constant struggle, a bout with the persistent unknown. But this extension into the abyss is also our salvation. To be only a fragment is always to strive for something beyond ourselves, something transcendent. That striving is always an act of freedom, of choosing one road instead of another. Though this labor is arduous — it requires constant attention to our mysterious and shifting interiors — it is also ecstatic, an almost infinite sounding of the exquisite riddles of Being.

To be against happiness is to embrace ecstasy. Incompleteness is a call to life. Fragmentation is freedom. The exhilaration of never knowing anything fully is that you can perpetually imagine sublimities beyond reason. On the margins of the known is the agile edge of existence. This is the rapture, burning slow, of finishing a book that can never be completed, a flawed and conflicted text, vexed as twilight.

Obama's victory scares Egyptian leadership

More good news from the Muslim world on Obama's victory:

According to the opposition weekly Sawt al Umma, the (Obama) cartoon appearing the leading Egyptian daily Al Ahram, caused a sense of an emergency among the Egyptian leadership. The independent weekly stated that 150,000 copies of the paper's first edition were quickly removed from the streets and destroyed and the "troublesome" phrase disappeared from future prints that day. The before and after cartoon depiction appeared in Sawt al Umma.

This is certainly not the first time that a political cartoon has caused powers in our region to be worried about losing their powers. But the paranoia of the Mubarak regime is a reflection of the concern by many Arab autocrats about the Obama euphoria empowering those calling for change. Obama's victory on the change mantra was not lost to people around the world yearning for political reform. Jordan's leading blogger Mohammad Omar says that the victory of the son of a Kenyan immigrant gives minorities, immigrants and unrepresented groups hope. Imagine a Palestinian who was born in Jordan fifty or sixty years ago and has tried very hard to be part of the political scene looking at the son of an immigrant in America being elected to the top executive position. The winds of hope don't stop at the American shores, Omar insists.

It's a weird thing for other countries, especially Arab countries, to be inspired by us, no?

Great Quote

I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave. --Joseph Campbell

A bit extreme maybe, but mostly true, I think. I've never understood people doing work they hate-- unless they are forced because of their situation-- in the pursuit of wealth, even though I see it around me everyday. How many corporate lawyers and finance people have I met in New York that hate their work but go in everyday because the paycheck is nice? It seems like such a soulless life, one where their humanity is not tested, so therefore their humanity becomes deadened and conventional. Life soon becomes a series of tasks in search of nothing...

I think that's what Joseph Campbell is saying here: to live a life that fosters humanity within ourselves and others-- whatever that may mean to you-- gives our narratives meaning. Anything less, is just a form of slavery.

Edward Kaufman to replace Joe Biden in the Senate

Some news out of Delware today:

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware will be replaced in the United States Senate by his longtime aide, Edward Kaufman, when Mr. Biden resigns the seat to become vice president.

Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner announced on Monday that she would name Mr. Kaufman, the senator’s chief of staff for 19 years and a close personal friend, to fill the vacancy through 2010. Mr. Kaufman, 69, said he intended to retire after two years, leaving opening the possibility that Senator Biden’s son Beau, the state’s attorney general, could run in 2010.

Not really big news, I know, but it's good to know just in case you're on Jeopardy or something.

Alan Colmes leaving "Hannity and Colmes"

It seems Sean Hannity is going to be flying solo from now on:

"Hannity & Colmes" at the end of the year. “I approached Bill Shine (FNC’s Senior Vice President of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network," Colmes said in a statement. "Although it’s bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I’m proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years.”

Is this really news, considering how little Alan Colmes contributes to the show? If a tree falls in the forest when no one is around, does it make a sound?

And so it goes... the Federal Government is planning to rescue Citigroup

I posted earlier about how Citigroup was in huge financial trouble. Well, it seems the government has noticed and is planning to do something about it:

Federal regulators were considering a new rescue for Citigroup on Sunday, a step that could mark a third leg of the government’s broader efforts to bolster the nation’s financial industry, according to people briefed on the plan.

Under the proposal, the government would shoulder losses at Citigroup if those losses exceeded certain levels, according to these people, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified because the plan was still under discussion.

I can't imagine anyone is thrilled about bailing out a failing bank, especially one as mismanaged as Citigroup. But these are desperate times, and it seems Citigroup's failure would be disastrous for the economy, so a bailout seems like a necessary step. I know, I know, I hate the idea of bailing out the super-rich just as much as you do...

The Reckoning: the hubris of Citigroup

Great front story in the Times today. It details the short-sighted greed and hubris that has Citigroup, one of the biggest banks in the world, nearing collapse. How bad is it? Check this:

Today, Citigroup, once the nation’s largest and mightiest financial institution, has been brought to its knees by more than $65 billion in losses, write-downs for troubled assets and charges to account for future losses. More than half of that amount stems from mortgage-related securities created by Mr. Maheras’s team — the same products Mr. Prince was briefed on during that 2007 meeting.

Citigroup’s stock has plummeted to its lowest price in more than a decade, closing Friday at $3.77. At that price the company is worth just $20.5 billion, down from $244 billion two years ago. Waves of layoffs have accompanied that slide, with about 75,000 jobs already gone or set to disappear from a work force that numbered about 375,000 a year ago.

A collapse by Citigroup would be disastrous, but it seems unclear if the bank can ride through the crisis or not:

Even though Citigroup executives insist that the bank can ride out its current difficulties, and that the repatriated assets pose no threat, investors have their doubts. Because analysts do not have a complete grip on the quality of those assets, they are warning that Citigroup may have to set aside billions of dollars to guard against losses.

In fact, some analysts say they believe that the $25 billion that the federal government invested in Citigroup this fall might not be enough to stabilize it.

Others say the fact that such huge amounts have yet to steady the bank is a reflection of the severe damage caused by Citigroup’s appetites.

“They pushed to get earnings, but in doing so, they took on more risk than they probably should have if they are going to be, in the end, a bank subject to regulatory controls,” said Roy Smith, a professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. “Safe and soundness has to be no less important than growth and profits but that was subordinated by these guys.”

All I can say is Jesus. When Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual collapsed it was scary, but if Citigroup disappears, it's a sign that our country is in a lot of trouble...

The Onion's "I'm Not One Of Those 'Love Thy Neighbor' Christians"

You know it's good satire when so much of it rings true:(I bolded some of my favorite parts)

Now, granted, there are some Christians on the lunatic fringe who take their beliefs a little too far. Take my coworker Karen, for example. She's way off the deep end when it comes to religion: going down to the homeless shelter to volunteer once a month, donating money to the poor, visiting elderly shut-ins with the Meals on Wheels program—you name it!

But believe me, we're not all that way. The people in my church, for the most part, are perfectly ordinary Americans like you and me. They believe in the simple old-fashioned traditions—Christmas, Easter, the slow and deliberate takeover of more and more county school boards to get the political power necessary to ban evolution from textbooks statewide. That sort of thing.

We oppose gay marriage as an abomination against the laws of God and America, we're against gun control, and we fervently and unwaveringly believe that the Jews, Muslims, and all on earth who are not born-again Pentecostalists are possessed by Satan and should be treated as such.

When it comes down to it, all we want is to see every single member of the human race convert to our religion or else be condemned by a jealous and wrathful God to suffer an eternity of agony and torture in the Lake of Fire!

I hope I've helped set the record straight, and I wish you all a very nice day! God bless you!

Gail Collins's "Time for Him to Go"

Gail Collin wrote a semi-serious column this morning with an interesting point of view, which doesn't happen very often. Here's what she said:

Thanksgiving is next week, and President Bush could make it a really special holiday by resigning.

Seriously. We have an economy that’s crashing and a vacuum at the top. Bush — who is currently on a trip to Peru to meet with Asian leaders who no longer care what he thinks — hasn’t got the clout, or possibly even the energy, to do anything useful. His most recent contribution to resolving the fiscal crisis was lecturing representatives of the world’s most important economies on the glories of free-market capitalism.

Putting Barack Obama in charge immediately isn’t impossible. Dick Cheney, obviously, would have to quit as well as Bush. In fact, just to be on the safe side, the vice president ought to turn in his resignation first. (We’re desperate, but not crazy.) Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would become president until Jan. 20. Obviously, she’d defer to her party’s incoming chief executive, and Barack Obama could begin governing.

I actually agree with her. It's not so much that I think George Bush is a horrible president, even though he is, but that he wasted all his political capital long ago on Iraq and a number of other failures and can provide almost zero leadership through this economic crisis. To have anyone else leading the country-- Democrat, Republican, Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, Barack Obama-- would be an improvement at this point. I know he'll never actually resign, but it would be nice to see...

Your Weekly Address from the President-Elect 11/22

Michael Jackson is a muslim

Saw this today and was not sure what to think. Here's a snippet:

Beleaguered pop star Michael Jackson has converted to Islam and changed his name to Mikaeel, it has been claimed today.

The 50-year-old singer, who has previously been photographed wearing a traditional Arab women's veil, reportedly became a Muslim in a ceremony at a friend's house in Los Angeles.

The singer, who was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, is said to have sat on the floor and worn a small hat while an imam officiated at the home of Steve Porcaro, who composed music on his Thriller album.

Great Poem: "somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond" by E.E. Cummings

I posted another E.E. Cummings love poem the other day, which I love, but it's not at quite the same level as the one below. The language is the biggest reason, but there is also more complexity to it too.

It suggests an element of sexuality as evidenced by the shutting and opening of a flower, but there is something deeper going on too. It is the feeling of looking at someone and being shattered by their stare; it is to be in awe of your love's "intense fragility," to know them so well that you know the slight flicker of her brow means she's angry or to understand when she is quiet, her thoughts are elsewhere and because of it, you want nothing more than to comfort her.

In the end it means to love someone deeply and passionately, which is something that may be the stuff of fairy tales and bad romantic comedies, but each of us has probably felt this love at moments in our lives; It's not necessarily a romantic feeling, there have been plenty of moments I've felt that intensity for a parent, grandparent, child.

And what an ending... I think the last four lines are absolutely devastating. "The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses" is such a beautiful line and would be a great end to any poem, but Cummings adds one other line to his poem: "nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands." It's a perfect ending and may be my favorite ending to a poem. His tenderness and adoration for his fragile, beautiful woman shines through in a way that is sentimental, very moving but never cheesy. Anyway, enjoy...

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
by E. E. Cummings
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

Paul Krugman's "The Lame-Duck Economy"

Paul Krugman wrote a truly frightening column this morning for the New York Times. His point: the 60 day or so transition from the George W. Bush White House to the Barack Obama White House could be a complete disaster as the economy continues to falter and nothing gets done because we have such an ineffectual, lame-duck president in office. How much worse can it get? Here's what Krugman says:

How much can go wrong in the two months before Mr. Obama takes the oath of office? The answer, unfortunately, is: a lot. Consider how much darker the economic picture has grown since the failure of Lehman Brothers, which took place just over two months ago. And the pace of deterioration seems to be accelerating.

Most obviously, we’re in the midst of the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression: the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has now fallen more than 50 percent from its peak. Other indicators are arguably even more disturbing: unemployment claims are surging, manufacturing production is plunging, interest rates on corporate bonds — which reflect investor fears of default — are soaring, which will almost surely lead to a sharp fall in business spending. The prospects for the economy look much grimmer now than they did as little as a week or two ago.

I'm obviously not an economist, but I've read a lot of expert opinions lately, and consensus seems to be the government needs to spend, spend and spend to help the economy get out of it's rut. That means going into a huge deficit to make sure money is going directly into the economy in the hopes of stimulating it. But unfortunately we don't have the leadership to make that happen right now. And if things get even worse before Obama takes office, it might be too late for him to really swing the balance of the economy in the right direction. Scary thought, I know. Let's just hope we don't see another great depression.

Just when you thought Sarah Palin couldn't sink any lower...

There comes this. Just watch her answering questions at the end, and the turkey the guy is holding:

Winnicott and potential space

"The potential space between baby and mother, between child and family, between individual and society or the world, depends on experience which leads to trust. It can be looked upon as sacred to the individual in that it is here that the individual experiences creative living." -D.W. Winnicott from "The Location of Cultural Experience," 1967

I've been reading a lot D.W. Winnicott lately, who is widely considered the greatest British psychotherapist ever to live, and I am fascinated by his theories. Unlike most philosophy, which tries to explain the world from the rational point of view of a philosopher, or most psychology, which focus on the illness of mental health, Winnicott focuses on the everyday, the interaction between the inner and outer worlds and the space in between in which we all live.

For Winnicott, the focus of most academic theory is either the internal or the external from the theories of Freud to the external behavior models of B.F. Skinner, but the world, in his view, is more complicated. Most of what takes place in the world is the interaction between a person and another person, his environment and his culture. It is here where creativity lies.

I happen to agree with most of what he says and it reminds me quite of Buddhism. For Buddhism, the "I," otherwise known as our egos, real does not exist the way we think it does. There is no concrete self, just a complex interaction between mind, body and environment. We are always changing, always adapting to the needs and wants of ourselves and the world around us. And to be truly mindful of this interaction is a path to some peace.

Winnicott is saying something very similar. The world most of us inhabit is not all outward and sensory or all inward and thought. The world most of us inhabit is the potential space where the inner and outer meet. It is only here where the "true self," as he liked to call, it lies. It is only here when we understand ourselves not as an "I," which is immovable and unchangeable, but an "I" that is more ethereal and is in constant interaction with the world around it.

(I'm not sure if any of that makes sense, but if you read it all the way through, I thank you. And if you're interested, I highly recommend "Playing and Reality" below)

Nate Silver grills John Zieglar for some hilarious results

Even though the election is over, fivethirtyeight.com is still going strong, giving constant updates on the senate races and opinions about Obama's cabinet positions. The other day they had an interview with John Zieglar, a right-winger who Nate Silver claims push-polled many voters about Obama. The results are hilarious. Zieglar completely loses it and starts insulting Silver.

Anyway, here are some snippets of the interview:

NS: Were the interviews conducted by telephone or online?
JZ: How can you ask a question like that and pretend that you have any clue what you're writing about! That's unbelievable that someone could write what you did! That is unbelievable that you wouldn't know that it's a telephone or an online poll and that you went on my summaries of the questions before the questions were even released!

NS: We’ve heard reports from our readers that very similar questions had been asked in an online format. There was no online component at all?
JZ: That is correct, which you would have known if you had looked at the information. Before you called this a push poll -- you don't seem to know the definition of a push poll. How do you have this website?


NS: What do you mean by "launched his career"?
JZ: The first campaign as told by the person whose position he took in the State Senate, as told by her admission, his first campaign event was in the home of Bill Ayers and his wife. [Laughs] Unless you live in the Obama kool-aid world! That is astonishing to me that you would not accept that! And by the way, when you're given four responses to that question, what else was the response going to be? Sarah Palin?

NS: Well, her husband was a member of a secessionist party.
JZ: You are such a hack! That's a very good analogy.

NS: Would you consider yourself well-informed
JZ: I’d consider myself extremely well-informed.

NS: Who are the two senators from South Dakota
JZ: Thune and, uh, Johnson.

NS: Very good. South Carolina?
JZ: Go fuck yourself. I'm done with this interview if you're going to ask me stupid questions like that. Obviously I know who Lindsay Graham is.

NS: Well, since you’re running a website calling people misinformed, I’d like to see if -- there are certain things you’ve said that I would consider misinformed.
JZ: Misinformed? You're a piece of work! You are never going to have the guts to post a representative transcript on your website! I thought you actually ran a legitimate website!

NS: Thank you, have a good day.
JZ: Go fuck yourself.

Analyze your blog type

I found this on Andrew Sullivan today. Basically this website, typealyzer.com, analyzes your own blog and tells you what type of blog yours is. Here's what it said about mine:

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generelly prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Pretty damn close, I'd say.

Super Obama World

For those of you have time to kill, here's a cool new game you may enjoy: Super Obama World. It's basically Super Mario Brothers with except your hero isn't an Italian-stereotype but our president elect. Watch out for those lipstick-wearing pigs, they're killers.

Is Osama Bin Laden dead?

I mentioned earlier today that Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri sent out an audio tape criticizing Barack Obama. After I thought about it some more today, I have to ask: why isn't Osama Bin Laden the one sending out the audio? After all he's the leader of Al-Qaeda, right? The answer seems simple enough to me: it's because he's dead.

Of course, I have no proof of this, and CIA director-general Michael Hayden did say Osama bin Laden is alive recently, so who am I to argue with someone whose agency is monitoring Al-Qaeda 24/7.

So I decided to do some internet research of my own to see what I could find out. It seems the last reliable sighting of Osama Bin Laden was in late 2001, nearly 7 years ago. But what about the video and audio that's been released since then? Robert Baer, a former CIA operative himself, points out:

A video that he apparently appeared in last year shows him with a dyed beard. More than a few Pakistani intelligence operatives who knew bin Laden scoff at the idea he would ever dye his beard. They think the tape was manipulated from old footage, and that bin Laden is in fact dead. But then again, they would have an interest in making Americans believe bin Laden is dead, since it would relieve U.S. pressure to find him by any means necessary, including going into Pakistani territory.

A video that he apparently appeared in last year shows him with a dyed beard. More than a few Pakistani intelligence operatives who knew bin Laden scoff at the idea he would ever dye his beard. They think the tape was manipulated from old footage, and that bin Laden is in fact dead. But then again, they would have an interest in making Americans believe bin Laden is dead, since it would relieve U.S. pressure to find him by any means necessary, including going into Pakistani territory.

And what about all the other audiotapes bin Laden has put out since 9/11? Experts will tell you that off-the-shelf digital-editing software could manipulate old bin Laden voice recordings to make it sound as if he were discussing current events. Finally, there's the mystery as to why bin Laden didn't pop up during the U.S. election. You would think a narcissistic mass murderer who believes he has a place in history would find it impossible to pass up an opportunity to give his opinion at such a momentous time, at least by dropping off a DVD at the al-Jazeera office in Islamabad.

Anyway, after looking it over more, I really do think he's dead, but I may very well be wrong. But the funny thing is that if he is dead, he has more power and creates more fear than most people do alive.

Ripping into Rush Limbaugh or why I love Chuck Hagel

Every Democrats favorite Republican is Chuck Hagel. There are number of reasons for this-- his opposition against the Iraq War comes to mind-- but the biggest reason for me is because he speaks his mind. For example, here's what he said yesterday:

"We are educated by the great entertainers like Rush Limbaugh," said Hagel, sarcastically referencing the talk radio host who once called him "Senator Betrayus." "You know, I wish Rush Limbaugh and others like that would run for office. They have so much to contribute and so much leadership and they have an answer for everything. And they would be elected overwhelmingly," he offered. "[The truth is] they try to rip everyone down and make fools of everybody but they don't have any answers."

LOL. Kudos Chuck.

Al-Qaeda No. 2 Insults Obama in Audio Message

I had a good laugh over this:

Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri is criticizing Barack Obama in a new message, calling him a demeaning racial term implying that the president-elect is a black American who does the bidding of whites.

Al-Zawahri says in an audio message, which appeared on militant Web sites Wednesday, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X. He calls Obama a "house negro."

The audio plays over still pictures of al-Zawahri, Malcolm X praying, and Obama with Jewish leaders.

As Andrew Sullivan points out, this doesn't make any sense. Hasn't Al-Qaeda been paying attention? Half the right-wing news media has accused Barack Obama of being a radical who is just short of Malcolm X. And one even accused Barack Obama of being Malcolm X's son.

There's a reason why none of these labels actually really stuck. Just think about it. How many contradictions are there in the labels... a liberal, socialist, communist, terrorist, secret Muslim, Israel-hating, radical who hates America. Then compare what we all see on TV at the debates or in his speeches. None of those labels matched what we saw. What we saw instead was a man with a conservative temperament who could give a great speech, but when he was talking about his plan for the country, could be a wonkish and boring politician.

Ted Stevens loses Senate Seat to Mark Begich

Good bye Uncle Ted, thanks for the memories:

Mr. Stevens, a Republican and a 40-year incumbent, was trailing his Democratic challenger, Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage, by 3,724 votes out of more than 315,000 cast after state election officials on Tuesday counted more than 35,000 absentee and other outstanding ballots.

Only an estimated 2,500 ballots remain to be counted next week, according to Gail Fenumiai, the state elections director...

Mr. Stevens, whose 85th birthday was Tuesday, was convicted last month in federal court in Washington of seven felony counts of failing to disclose more than $250,000 in gifts and home renovations he received. He is the longest serving Republican in Senate history.

Mr. Stevens is a revered figure in Alaska, known for bringing billions of dollars in federal spending to the state. He took office just nine years after Alaska entered the union. Mr. Begich ran a cautious campaign, rarely criticizing Mr. Stevens directly, largely leaving that work to the coverage of Mr. Stevens’s trial and to aggressive advertisements paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Mr. Begich would be the first Democrat to represent Alaska in Congress in three decades. He says he will steer a different course from other Democrats in Washington on many issues including favoring drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In all seriousness, out of just pure empathy, I hope Uncle Ted doesn't spend the last remaining years of his life in prison. But I'm glad he's out. If he would have won, Sarah Palin very well could have made herself the Senator from Alaska. I know, scary.

Anyway, that makes 58 for the Democrats in the Senate with 2 seats still up for grabs...

Great Quote

"Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify." -Henry David Thoreau

(This is from "Walden," one my favorite books.)

Facebook etiqutte: to delete or not to delete?

Saw something on interesting on Ta-Nehisi Coates today:

So it became clear that I couldn't leave Facebook. (*shakes fist*) Still, is it wrong to delete friends? I'd actually like to use my Facebook to keep track of people I want to keep track of. It's nightmare sorting through people you don't know, while trying to find the ones you do. Would I be wrong to trim my Facebook friends back? Only people under 25 are allowed to answer this question. The rest of us are too old.

This is, of course, a moronic question in a lot of ways, but it's one I've thought about myself in the past year as the number of my facebook friends increase. Do I really have 225+ friends? Fuck no. I probably know 60-70 people, family and friends combined, that I would consider a crucial part of my life.

The rest: a collection of junior high, high school, college and other random people who I've seen under 5 times in the last 20 years. We're "friends" in the way Bill Ayers and Barack Obama were "friends." In other words I couldn't tell you if most of these people were in relationships or not or had once bombed the Pentagon or not. So like Ta-Nehisi, I'm thinking about getting rid of them. I'm just wondering if it'd hurt a lot of people's feelings...

(P.S. I realize that as a 29-year-old, I must sound ridiculous even considering this that closely, so it's OK, hate away, I deserve it )

Great Poem: "i carry your heart with me" E.E. cummings

I'm not sure there is much to say about this poem except that if you've ever been in love, you know exactly what E.E. Cummings means. (Yes, I'm a sentimental dude...)

i carry your heart with me by E.E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Terry McAuliffe could sell shit to the zoo

Of all the characters in Hillary Clinton's failed presidential campaign, Terry McAuliffe was easily the most annoying. The dude would go on to TV and just wouldn't shut up. Mind you, being talkative could be a good thing if you have something truthful or interesting to say, but almost every word that came of this guy's mouth was utter bullshit.

Anyway, a few days ago it was revealed that McAuliffe would run for Governor of Virginia in 2010. Here was a particularly interesting part of the article:

Potential opponents dismiss him as a cynical Daddy Warbucks who has long plotted to buy himself a governorship — claiming he even mulled runs in his native New York and Florida, where his wife’s family lives.

McAuliffe’s pals dismiss such criticism and say his unique blend of charm and cash will prove irresistible.

“Terry could sell shit to the zoo,” explains longtime pal Paul Begala. “He’s the best salesman in the world.”

Well, he might be able to sell shit to a zoo, but he couldn't sell the Democratic party as the head of the DNC, and he couldn't sell his candidate, Hillary, over Barack Obama. Or as Kos says:

Terry McAuliffe can obviously sell shit to Paul Begala. He has a harder time selling it to people outside his circle of shit-buying friends.

Another rightwinger thinks Barack Obama is Adolf Hitler

From a press release by Michael Savage, asshole right-wing radio host:

Nationally-syndicated talk show host Michael Savage is set to interview former German member of the Hitler Youth, Hilmar von Campe this Tuesday, November 18.

The program will focus on similarities, which von Campe sees between the rise of totalitarianism under Hitler and the current social and political trends inside the United States.

"Every day brings this nation closer to a Nazi-style totalitarian abyss," writes von Campe, now a U.S. citizen, and author of "Defeating the Totalitarian Lie: A Former Hitler Youth Warns America."

"Today in America we are witnessing a repeat performance of the tragedy of 1933 when an entire nation let itself be led like a lamb to the Socialist slaughterhouse. This time, the end of freedom is inevitable unless America rises to her mission and destiny."

Hilmar points to events surrounding the election of Barack Hussein Obama as reminiscent of the way the Nazi regime came to power.

I don't get it. I really don't. Have these people ever watched Obama speak? Check out the 60 minutes interview with Barack Obama and Michelle below. These people are the most normal people ever. (I guarantee you if there was a television interview with Adolf Hitler in 1933, his remarks would come off far from normal.)

You might not like his ideas or politics but comparing him to one of the biggest mass murders in history is a bit of demogaugery, don't you think?

Somali Pirates Seize Supertanker Loaded with Crude Oil

From the "how fucking cool is this" department:

Somali pirates hijacked a supertanker hundreds of miles off the Horn of Africa, seizing the Saudi-owned ship loaded with crude and its 25-member crew, the U.S. Navy said Monday.

It was the largest ship pirates have seized, and the farthest out to sea they have successfully struck.

I don't know about you, but being a Somali pirate hijacking supertankers for ransom seems like a pretty exciting and profitable life. It makes wonder what I've been doing with my 29 years on this earth.

Prince is homophobic?

From the latest New Yorker:

When asked about his perspective on social issues—gay marriage, abortion—Prince tapped his Bible and said, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’ ”

Uh, I'm guessing the irony isn't lost on most of you. I mean just look at the picture above. Dude is wearing a motherfucking purple suit with ruffles and shiny stuff on it. Yet he's against gay rights... oh brother.

Girl Talk Show Terminal 5

I went to a Girl Talk show last night at Terminal 5. If you don't know who Girl Talk is, he specializes in mashup style remixes, in which he uses often a dozen or more unauthorized samples from different songs to create a new song. His most famous mashup: mixing Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy" with Elton John's "Tiny Dancer."

Anyway, his show was the craziest dance party you could possibly image. Imagine a few thousand people dancing, jumping up down, crowd surfing and dancing on stage the whole time to a hour and a half of mixed music. It was maybe the most fun I've ever had at a show.

You can download his new album here. It's worth it just to hear him mixing Flo Rida's "Low" and The Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning." Simply brilliant shit.

Dennis Miller Claims Women Hate Sarah Palin Because "She Has A Great Sex Life"

When did Dennis Miller become such a douche? He claims women on the left hate Sarah Palin because she has a great sex life? I know he's joking, but it's a pretty weak punchline.

Most of us don't hate Sarah Palin. We just thought she was dangerously unqualified to be VP and president of the United States. Oh wait, and then there was this:

Palin told a group of donors at a private airport, "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." She also said, "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America."

OK, maybe I do hate her.

Your Weekly Address from the President-Elect

Barack Obama's first weekly address isn't all that interesting on its own terms. What is interesting is that he put on YouTube so anyone with a computer can find it. Obama has already shown himself to be the most technologically adept politician in the history of the United States, building an amazing online presence to help him raise money and win the election. And it seems he has learned the lessons of his campaign and brought it to the White House:

Obamaism

I know I've been blogging about Barack Obama ad nauseum, but it's only been about 10 days, and I'm still buzzing from the victory, so bear with me.

Anyway, New York Magazine has a cover story on Barack Obama that I enjoyed quite a bit:

When we were growing up, the future was the 21st century, and the future was going to astonish us.

And so it has, eight years in, and not just with whiz-bang gadgets. We were astonished by the attacks of September 11. By the administration’s bungling of the Iraq War. By Hurricane Katrina’s scale of destruction and the administration’s incompetent response. By the realization that global warming is possibly out of control. By the teetering of the global financial system.

Yet none of the 21st century’s OMFG events has been any more astonishing than what happened last week. Not just a Democratic president, but one elected with the third largest majority of any Democrat in the past one hundred years; not just a resoundingly victorious Democrat who lacks (for the first time since most voters were born) a southern accent, but who nevertheless won three southern states; not just a big-city northern Democrat whose name recognition was close to zero 1,500 days ago, but an eloquent Ivy League intellectual; and, of course, not just an unknown smooth-talking pointy-headed neoliberal with an exotic upbringing, but, yes, an African-American.

It is pretty remarkable that a black man won a majority of voters and Indiana and Virginia, which last went Democrat in 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act became law. I never would have thought it would have been possible. But then again politicians like Barack Obama come around once in a lifetime.

The New Yorker's James Wood breaks down Obama's victory speech

This week's issue of the New Yorker is a great one, covering almost every aspect of Barack Obama's historic victory. One article I found particularly enlightening was James Wood's break down of Obama's victory speech:

A theatre critic once memorably complained of a bad play that it had not been a good night out for the English language. Among other triumphs, last Tuesday night was a very good night for the English language. A movement in American politics hostile to the possession and the possibility of words—it had repeatedly disparaged Barack Obama as “just a person of words” —was not only defeated but embarrassed by a victory speech eloquent in echo, allusion, and counterpoint. No doubt many of us would have watched in tears if President-elect Obama had only thanked his campaign staff and shuffled off to bed; but his midnight address was written in a language with roots, and stirred in his audience a correspondingly deep emotion.

On Tuesday night, Obama returned to his cherished theme, the perfection of the Union. Any victorious election speech must turn campaign vinegar into national balm, must move from local conquest to national triumph, and Obama cunningly used this necessity to expand epically through American space and time. Behind his speech were the ghosts of Lincoln’s First Inaugural, which moved anxiously over “every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land,” and his Second, which promised to “bind up the nation’s wounds.” Obama quoted from the end of the First Inaugural—“We are not enemies, but friends”—and the implication was clear: that the past eight years have been a kind of civil war.

I was surprised to see such a literary critique of Obama's speech, but I also think it was worthy of one. It was a great speech, maybe the best he's every delivered, maybe one of the best ever delivered.

Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State?

The big rumor out there is that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama met yesterday about the Secretary of State job. Andrew Sullivan thinks it's an inspired move:

It is a senior enough position not to be fobbed off; it really does take advantage of the Clinton name abroad; it could even put Bill to good use and keep him out of mischief; and Obama has kept telling us that his cabinet model is "Team Of Rivals." Giving Hillary that kind of position is straight out of Lincoln.

Unlike the vice-presidency, a secretary of state has real constitutionally-designated things to do. From Clinton's point of view, it would be a natural position from which to run to succeed Obama in 2016 (or to make an inside push to oust him in 2012). The emergence of Max Baucus as the front senator for healthcare seems to me a sign that Obama might have already been signaling this maneuver. If Clinton isn't the lead player on healthcare, what is she going to do?

So here's hoping he offers and she accepts. It's an elegant and shrewd move; both public spirited and yet coldly calculating at the same time. Pure Obama.

I mostly agree with Andrew. Obama seems to be following the Lincoln/Kennedy model for building a cabinet where a president puts the best minds possible in a room together and lets them argue it out. (This, of course, is the opposite of the George W. Bush cabinet.)

But I feel unease with putting a Clinton anywhere near the White House for the same reasons I never thought Hillary should be VP: Obama's campaign is about change, and putting a Clinton near the White House is the opposite of change. But in the end, Hillary is a great politician and would probably be a great asset to the Obama administration.

Paul Broun compares Barack Obama to Hitler

Oh, crazy right-wing nuts, where would be without you on a slow news day:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship.

"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

Obama's comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado about building a new civil service corps. Among other things, he called for expanding the nation's foreign service and doubling the size of the Peace Corps "to renew our diplomacy."

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," Obama said in July. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

Broun said he also believes Obama likely will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force.

Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms and favors "common sense" gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he'll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault weapons and concealed weapons. As an Illinois state lawmaker, Obama supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on firearms generally.

"We can't be lulled into complacency," Broun said. "You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I'm not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I'm saying is there is the potential."

I'm not going to really comment on this because it's so patently moronic and ridiculous. But Jon Oliver had a great bit on it last on the Daily Show:

Paul Krugman's "Depression Economics Returns "

In the Times this morning, Paul Krugman makes some suggestions for the new Obama administration:

What does all this say about economic policy in the near future? The Obama administration will almost certainly take office in the face of an economy looking even worse than it does now. Indeed, Goldman Sachs predicts that the unemployment rate, currently at 6.5 percent, will reach 8.5 percent by the end of next year.

All indications are that the new administration will offer a major stimulus package. My own back-of-the-envelope calculations say that the package should be huge, on the order of $600 billion.

So the question becomes, will the Obama people dare to propose something on that scale? Let’s hope that the answer to that question is yes, that the new administration will indeed be that daring. For we’re now in a situation where it would be very dangerous to give in to conventional notions of prudence.

Well, let me start by saying that I trust Krugman with the economy maybe more than anyone in the world. He is after all a Nobel Prize winner in economics and predicted the downfall of this economy several years ago, while many economists were still saying nothing was wrong with the economy. So when Krugman says we need to inject even more money into the economy, I believe him.

What I am worried about is the Obama administration. After injecting $700 billion into the economy already, it would definitely be politically unpopular to inject another $600 billion into it. Will Obama and his team do what's politically unpopular yet good for the nation? Will they stand by what they think is right? I hope so. Either way it's going to be Mr. Obama's first big test as president.

Bill Ayers on Good Morning America

It seems that Bill Ayers was on Good Morning America this morning:

He kept his mouth shut like a good boy throughout the entire campaign, and now it's time to sell a few books! So Ayers has smartly added a new afterword to his 2001 memoir and reissued it, with this stunning addition: he may have been a "family friend" to Obama, rather than just "a guy in the neighborhood." Grab your guns, patriotic Americans!

Ayers told GMA that, yes, he knew Obama from way back, and yes, he was on a board, and all of this is public, and thousands of other Chicagoans knew Obama just as well as he did, and that the entire issue is bullshit, all of which is patently true. Still...

It's now clear that Hussein Obama is little more than a Manchurian Candidate who has squirmed his way into the White House only to take direct orders from radical latte-sipping college professor Ayers! Even more clearly, Ayers is a canny businessman for someone so opposed to the capitalist power structure. Instead of selling 35 copies of his book a year to his own students as required reading, he's now poised to sell thousands to various right wing lunatics who will buy it just to "preserve the evidence" of his Obama ties for use in the coming race war. Good for him.

It still amazes me that this was such a big issue during the campaign. The argument goes because Barack Obama knew a former terrorist somewhat well in Chicago and served on a board with him, Barack Obama is therefore at the very least a commie terrorist sympathizer. Does anyone with any sort of objective brain, actually buy that shit?

Baseball's Top Ten Free Agents

Here's a list of baseball's top ten free agents. It's a pretty damn good free agent class, but it's a horrible list, in my opinion-- even despite their ages, any list that puts K-Rod over Manny Ramirez is not a good one-- but it's a good primer to what's out there this off-season.

While the list has Mark Teixeira is the best free agent of the class, if I were a GM, I'd take Carsten Charles Sabathia any day.

The N-Word Is Flourishing Among Generation Hip-Hop Latinos

The Village Voice has an interesting story about Latinos and the use of the N-word. I'm not sure what to make of this, but it's worth reading if you're interested in race and language:

As many times as I've heard it yelled across the streets and in playgrounds lately, it doesn't take away the sting. But it's naive to think Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban kids in New York City aren't calling each other and themselves the n-word, especially in 2008. (It's a global phenomenon, too: In West African cities like Freetown and Accra, heads that find out you're from the States and part of the hip-hop community will find creative ways to work the word into a conversation.) For us, the word usually surfaces in the same context that arises among young African-Americans: as a term of inclusion and solidarity. "It's just a code of communication to us, a 'hood word people throw around frequently," says half-African-American, half-Dominican rapper AZ, who released his "rap thesis" on the subject, titled N.4.L. (Niggaz 4 Life), last month. "I guess people want to use it now for press and all that; I don't understand what's all the big fuss about."

Somehow, the n-word has found its way back into hip-hop's critical zeitgeist: I'm interested in exploring, as a Dominican New Yorker, how we as a community have propagated it. Recently, due to the mounting criticism of Boricua rapper Fat Joe's use of the term eight albums deep into his career (including his latest, The Elephant in the Room), Latinos are being challenged to introspect. But I can see why an impulse to laser-focus on the issue now would bewilder a veteran rapper like Joe; he's used the word consistently since emerging in 1993, as have the Beatnuts, Hurricane G, and his late Puerto Rican cohort Big Pun, to name a few. In an interview with Chicago-based WGCI radio personality Leon Rogers, Joe said that while he didn't know exactly when Latinos started using the n-word, he felt that "somehow it became a way to embrace each other." He added: "Crazy shit is, my man Reverend Al Sharpton, whenever I see him, he'll be like, 'Wassup Joe, my nigga,' and he's the dude that protests 'my nigga.' He's my friend, so he says it to me as a term of endearment."

Supreme Court Upholds Bill Of Rights In 5-4 Decision

Oh I love the Onion:

WASHINGTON—In a landmark decision Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly ruled to uphold the Bill of Rights, the very tenets upon which American society is based. "After carefully considering the relevance of the 10 inviolable rights that comprise the ideological foundation on which our nation is built, the court finds that these basic freedoms remain important for the time being, and should not be overturned," read the majority opinion authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who cast the tie-breaking vote. "Until such time as it can be definitively proven that citizens no longer require the protections provided by the Bill of Rights, it shall remain the principal legal guidance for the United States of America." The Supreme Court's latest decision comes on the heels of last month's 6-3 ruling to abolish the pursuit of happiness from the three inalienable rights guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence.

Good Bye: Fire Joe Morgan is no longer

Truly heartbreaking news from the internet... firejoemorgan.com has decided to call it quits:

After 21 years, and almost 40 million posts (we'll have to check those numbers, but it's something like that), we have decided to bring FJM to an end.

Although we have not lost our borderline-sociopathic joy for meticulously criticizing bad sports journalism, the realities of our professional and personal lives make FJM a time/work luxury we can no longer afford.

This sucks. The Joe Chats were truly some of the funniest things I have ever read in my life. But I'm Ken Tremendous and the boys have better things to do with their time. Anyway, I'd like to thank them for all the laughs.

Sarah Palin's first press conference

Gosh darnit, how entertaining:

Great Poem: "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold

All I can say while there are some big, grand themes in this poem, who cares about them. Just listen to the music of the words. Each sound is so seductively mournful and beautiful... it's really the kind of poem anyone can enjoy, not just poetry lovers. But I will say this, when you're reading this poem, think about the role faith or a lack of faith plays in your life, and what Arnold might be saying about that.

Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast, the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,

Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.