The Cranky Crone

pity the poor poohbahs

2009-02-05T08:10:00.004-05:00

did you know that 500K is not very much money to make in a year?

not according to this asshole, anyway... James F. Reda, founder of a compensation consulting firm, who was quoted in a New York Times story about obama’s restrictions on executive pay. he said it would be difficult to staff companies forced to accept the limits. awww.... poor poohbahs!!!

excuse me, mister reda and mister limp-ball and all the other poohbahs squawking about this... aren't you all the ones who fucked it all up? and five hundred thousand dollars sounds like QUITE a lot of money to ME - and i live very comfortably on no where NEAR that amount. even obama only makes 250,000$. why should the guy who gets paid to dig us all out have to make a pittance besides the people who created the mountain of shit in the first place?

personally, i think the poor poohbahs should consider that maybe there're other rewards besides money for doing what you do and if there aren't... should you really bother to do it? people who really love what they do - do it whether they get paid or not. ask any artist, any writer, any musician. my husband frequently says he'd do what he does for free...and pretty soon, the way the economy's going, he just may be doing that.

because what the lords of wall street and the titans of industry seem to have forgotten, is that it's not about the money, stupid. it's about the love - or it should be. call me crazy, but i think we should consider doing the very same thing in every over-the-top salaried industry.

like sports. we'll cap all the players salaries at say.. oh, a million dollars, and then maybe tickets to see games can be back where they used to be. maybe sodas wouldn't have to cost ten dollars and a hot dog fifteen. maybe t-shirts could be twenty dollars instead of fifty. that way, the people who only want to play for the money or the fame will leave, and the guys who WANT to play ball - who WILL play ball for as long as there are balls to play with... CAN. i'm not saying don't give them a reasonable amount of money - like 500,000 or even a million if you want to be really crazy. but seriously, shouldn't you play a sport because you're so good at it and you love it so much they couldn't keep you off the field? and does anyone reading this seriously believe derek jeter is going to have trouble finding something to do with his time to earn a few dollars when he can't play for the yankees any more?

i think it all comes down to the fact that anything that requires that much money to make a person feel adequately compensated for doing it isn't worth getting done. i can hear my daddy saying, oh honey, these guys really EARN what they get.

yeah, daddy, with all due respect, if that's the case... then i submit there's something seriously fucked up with the world. we've made money the measure of success, and degraded and devalued everything else that makes you really successful. people who love what they do do it anyway. people who only do things for the money shouldn't bother.

people who have a lot of money aren't any happier, as far as i can tell, than people who don't. money is a culturally-created tool that we need to get clearer about it's true value and how it best serves us. because otherwise, as we are dimly coming realize, it makes a terrible master.

i saw a headline...

2009-01-16T10:29:00.002-05:00

...that woke up the Cranky Crone in me. (have you all noticed im not terribly cranky these days?) anyways... the headline was:

Bush's farewell address - why didn't Obama watch it?

Because he's up over his eyeballs dealing with the fucking muck Shrub made of things, that's why.

Is the obvious really news?

one more rant

2008-12-31T06:21:00.003-05:00

my daughter meg sent me an article posted at the wall street journal's web site. it's about a russian academic named igor who's been predicting that the US has a fifty percent chance of collapsing by 2010. what upsets me isn't that this guy thinks that - it's a free world, he can think what he want, after all, and of course he says stuff like that; im sure it's bought him a very nice life in an otherwise not so nice place - and it isn't the idea of the US collapsing by 2010.

what upsets me is not that the wall street journal has published this information - though i have to ask myself why - but that my daughter thought i'd be interested in the first place.

why'd she send it to me? well... i have a feeling its because the article scared her. and when you are afraid, a young mammal instinctively turns to its parent. this is real fear, too, the real fear that was unleashed by the fudd/barbie campaign. now it's got no platform and it's howling like a wolf in our streets.

i was told just last night by an otherwise intelligent (at least i think she's intelligent) person that we are "in pre world-war-two conditions" and she's gone out and bought herself a gun. this is not someone who lives in an even remote an area as i do. this is someone who lives in a neighborhood - on a street - presumably one full of kids and traffic and ordinary people living their lives. and she's terrified.

well, i'm not. maybe there's a fifty-fifty chance the world could end tomorrow - but i doubt it. maybe there's a fifty chance the us could collapse and there'll be rioting and martial law and fire in the streets... but i doubt it. let's say the absolute worst happens and the world goes dark.

are we such weenies we can't see the potential?

ive been doing a lot of thinking about king arthur lately. my new story is set against the backdrop of an arthurian archaeological dig, and to figure out what they might've found (no more silver cauls for me, thanks!) i've been rereading a lot of my old arthur stuff.

it's interesting to read the history set against the backdrop of THESE dark times, because it does, let's face it, feel like the barbarians might be at the gates. old things ARE collapsing - look at bernie madoff. people are talking about the institutions and the people affected by his fraud, but what about the systemic poison that he and his cronies pumped, all unknowingly into the financial system? don't you think his fraudelent practices, widespread and insidious as they obviously were - had an affect on all of us?

so if we're talking about systems collapsing and walls tumbling down, i'd say there's a few systems that need such serious overhauling i don't see why it would hurt to start over all again with something else. i think there're plenty walls that could stand to come down. every time an empire falls we're given another chance to put something better in its place. maybe instead of cowering on our couches behind our guns and bags of chips, we might think of what that Better Thing might look like.

but the Powers-That-Be - including those who run the wall street journal - have no interest in creating a mindset that encourages people to think of alternate realities in which the Powers-That-Be might not maintain control. instead, people like igor the russian, are paid to say things that are pretty much guaranteed to scare people, and other people get paid to make sure that as many of us as possible know what he thinks.

people gripped by fear are the easiest to control.

so what does king arthur have to do with all this? when the western empire began to collapse in the late fourth, early fifth century CE, britain alone among all the provinces organized itself into an independent state, and held back the barbarian onslaught for nearly a 100 years. this is the real legacy of arthur, why his story shines like gold through the ages, as encrusted with petty aduluteries and incestuous children and fantastical events as it may be.

it's not REALLY about a king and a bunch of knights and round table and a funny old guy with a long white beard who makes magic. it's not even about how personal flaws bring down great leaders though one can certainly relate to them in this way as well.

it's about how when the lights really WERE going off and the barbarians really WERE at the gates, a group of people banded together to preserve all that they could of what they loved about their way of life. it was britain that stood as civilization's last stand in europe, and the irish monks, where the light of antiquity burned beneath their frantic fingers.

and so, i have no doubt that should the worst really happen and should the us really fall - though i REALLY don't believe it will happen: the Powers-that-be dont REALLY want that to happen (they just want us to believe it COULD happen) - out of the chaos will come those of sound mind, strong body and great heart, in whom the spirit of arthur and all he has come to stand for, continues to burn. and maybe something even better, something radically different from anything that's gone before - will be born. maybe we've reached the place at last in our evolution where we can do that. old ways MUST die, in order for new ways to take their place. we must ask ourselves what is it that we cling to from the past, and how well does it serve?

the darkness is coming, you say? i say, all the sooner comes the Light.

and furthermore, the war must end. blessed be.

and now one courtesy of my brother john

2008-10-21T17:38:00.001-04:00

i'm copying this one my brother john passed along to me....i think this is what we should do if mccain gets elected...

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and
we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon , Washington ,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We
believe this split will be beneficial to the

nation, and especially to
the people of the new country of New California .

To sum up briefly:

You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You
get Alabama .
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states
pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a
bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war,
and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If
you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids
they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and
they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's
casketscoming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and hope that the WMDs
turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's
Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent
of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple
and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of
America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state
dinners), 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech
industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods,
sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Cal,
Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care
costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the
tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern
Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh,
Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite , thank you. Additionally, 38 percent
of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a
whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the
death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a
theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent
of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then
we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt
weed they grow in Mexico.

Peace out,

Blue States

this is how facism comes... wise words from a wise man

2008-10-13T08:50:00.000-04:00

and now, another essay from tim wise:

This is How Fascism Comes:
Reflections on the Cost of Silence
By Tim Wise
October 12, 2008

For those who have seen the ugliness and heard the vitriol emanating from the mouths of persons attending McCain/Palin rallies this past week--what with their demands to kill Barack Obama, slurs that he is a terrorist and a traitor, and paranoid delusions about his crypto-Muslim designs on America--please know this: This is how fascism comes to an ostensible democracy.

If it comes--and if those whose poisonous, unhinged verbiage has been so ubiquitous this week have any say over it, it surely will--this is how it will happen: not with tanks and jackbooted storm troopers, but carried in the hearts of men and women dressed in comfortable shoes, with baseball caps, and What Would Jesus Do? wristbands. It will be heralded by up-dos, designer glasses, you-betcha folksiness and a disdain for big words or hard consonants.

If fascism comes, it will spring from the soil of middle America, from people known as values voters but whose values are toxic, from simple folk whose simplicity, far from being admirable, is better labeled ignorance, from "all-American" types whose patriotism is a dagger pointed at the very heart of the national interest, for it so forsakes all the best principles upon which the republic was founded, choosing instead to elevate and ratify the narrow-mindedness, the bigotry, and the intolerance that also marked our country's origins.

If fascism comes, it will be ushered in by tailgaters at the big football game, by Joe Six Pack, who, upon finishing his sixth beer and belching forth the stench of a mediocre life lived, will gladly announce its arrival, so long as it comes with a steady supply of Pabst Blue Ribbon and hot dogs on the grill, and giant foam hands with a "We're Number 1" finger, some Mardi Gras beads and a good titty bar.

If fascism comes it will dress like a hockey mom, or a NASCAR dad. It will believe Toby Keith to be an artist, Larry the Cable Guy to be a comic, and that the world was made in six literal days less than 6000 years ago.

If fascism comes it will come from the small towns; the ones Sarah Palin, quoting a famous racist and Jew-hater, said "grow good people," and which occasionally do, but which, just as often grow provincial, isolated, fearful and superstitious ones.

If fascism comes it will come from faux populism, from anti-immigrant hysteria, from persons who have more guns in their homes than books, or whose books, when they have them, are principally volumes of the Left Behind series, several different copies of the Bible, and a plethora of romance novels.

If fascism comes it will be welcomed, lock stock and barrel by persons who pray at every meal to a God they visualize as white, whose son they also think was white, and who they believe is going to rapture them all into the sky upon the blowing of some heavenly trumpet, after which point all those who don't think as they think will be burned in an eternal lake of fire. Their vision and version of God is itself fascistic--to love a God who would do such a thing is to love an abusive, sadistic and evil deity after all--so it should come as little surprise that their conception of the state would be equally authoritarian or worse.

If fascism comes it will be at the behest of those who hold a contempt for what they call "book learnin," who prefer Presidents who mispronounce basic words because they make them feel smarter, and who are looking for nothing so much as a commander-in-chief with whom they would enjoy having a beer, or two, or twelve at some backyard barbecue.

If fascism comes it will be interviewed, lovingly, on talk radio, by hosts whose cerebral inadequacies are more than made up for by their bellicosity, their bombast, their willingness to shout down those with whom they cannot argue, for argument requires knowledge, and this is a commodity with which they have not even a passing familiarity.

If fascism comes it will come wrapped in red,white and blue, carrying a crucifix and a shotgun, projecting its own sexual confusion and insecurity onto others, substituting volume for veracity and rage for reason, and landing on the New York Times best-seller list as a result.

If fascism comes it will have a pajama party at Ann Coulter's house, pop pills with Rush Limbaugh, and go gay-bashing with Michael Savage, all in the same weekend. And it will refuse to learn another language or get a passport, because doing either of those would make one cosmopolitan--which is just another word for "faggot."

If fascism comes it will come because a lot of people who aren't like the folks I'm talking about here, won't stand up to the ones who are. Because we're too busy, don't want to make waves, don't want to lose friends, or alienate family. It will come, in other words, because those who know better are cowards, more concerned with getting along, making nice, and being liked than with telling the truth, calling out evil and saving their country.

If fascism comes it will come because of the silence, and thus, collaboration of those who think themselves good, and certainly superior to the knuckle-draggers they can see on YouTube at the McCain rallies, but who in the end are no better and in some ways worse than they: after all, at least fascists stand up for what they believe in. They are telling us, in no uncertain terms what kind of United States they want and are willing to fight for, and maybe even to kill for. But many "progressives," many liberals, many of the so-called enlightened are doing nothing at all.

If fascism comes it will come because those liberals thought voting for Barack Obama was all they needed to do; it will come because they allowed themselves to believe that politics is what a person does every four years, but not at work, and not in the neighborhood, and not at the dinner table. Meanwhile, know-nothings filled with hate, nurtured on racial and religious bigotry and who have overdosed on the kind of hypernationalism that has always proved fatal to those places foolish or craven enough to allow it a foothold, talk of their visions for America at every opportunity. They raise their kids on that sickness, they build churches whose very foundation is rooted in that cancerous rot, and they will think nothing of steamrolling those who get in their way.

So when, exactly, do we fight back? When do we say enough? When do we stand up to our relative or friend who sends us the e-mail about Obama being a Manchurian Candidate or al-Qaeda sympathizer, or the one about the decency of Midwestern flood victims as opposed to those stranded after Katrina, or about how God was punishing New Orleans because of its tolerance of homosexuality, and tell them what we think: namely, that they are a bunch of racist, heterosexist loons, whose friendship or familial connection we neither want nor intend to pursue unless they get help. When do we decide that we love our country and humanity too much to allow these people one more day of decent sleep, one more day of self-assured confidence in their craziness and the willingness of the rest of us to just take it? When do we decide that every irrational, Jeezoid, racist thing that comes from their mouths will be attacked, will be rebutted, until they can no longer take for granted the ability to say any of it in mixed company without being called out?

Why, in the face of the fascism they would surely introduce if given the chance, are we intent on being so nice? Why are we not more offended? Offended not merely at what such persons say about others--like Obama, or Latino immigrants, or whatever--but even about we who look like them? After all, their open exhortations of racism presuppose that they are speaking for us, and that this kind of brain-dead ventilation is something to which all white folks should aspire as though it were virtually the essence of enlightenment.

If fascism comes it will come because we did not see in their actions a sufficient threat, or because we allowed ourselves to believe that it couldn't come, that our institutions were too strong, our people too good, for that to happen. If it comes it will come because we allowed ourselves to believe the rosy and optimistic version of America spun by Obama, without tempering that optimism with a clear-headed appraisal of the way that (sadly) a still huge number of Americans actually think: because we allowed the vehicle of our hopes to outrun the headlights of truth; because we convinced ourselves that we actually lived in the country of our aspirations, rather than the nation we have at present.

And if fascism doesn't come--if, rather, democracy does--it will come because good people said no. It will come because we saw in this moment the opportunity to demand the full measure of our humanity and to pour it forth upon the national soil. It will be because we understood that democracy isn't what you have, it's what you do. But if we are to issue that demand, if we are to stand straight and fulfill the potential we possess to do justice, we had best exercise the option quickly, for the opponents of justice are on the move. They are preparing to enter on the winds of our silence and indifference, and complacency. Let them find no quarter here.

barbie on testosterone

2008-09-28T07:12:00.002-04:00

the scariest observation i've heard of sarah palin's interviews is that she sounds smarter than mccain did during the debate.

she's no stupider than anyone else, Beloved opined. sure, she's shallow and vague and doesn't address the issues, but no more so than the rest of them. and she's cute.

i think im sure Beloved was kidding.

the fact that there're people who will vote for a person who thinks its fun to shoot animals from airplanes, because that person is cute is as terrifying to me as the fact that there are people who will vote for a guy who looks and sounds like elmer fudd because they can't bring themselves to vote for a person who happens to have african ancestry. (considering the human animal evolved on the plains of africa, don't we all have african ancestry?)

shoot me now.

it occured to me i better stop saying that.

if elmer and barbie-on-testosterone get elected, i might get my wish.

the wages of Greed

2008-09-26T14:43:00.004-04:00

it seems to me there is a simple solution to the current fiscal crisis - a solution so simple i don't understand why someone hasn't mentioned it somewhere else before.

since the current economic disgrace owes much not simply to the Current Administration, but also to the people who made the decisions that got us into this mess - ie the corporate boards and their minions - it seems to me that the people who should foot the bill are ones who caused it.

so how about we simply require that everyone who got a salary and bonus compensation package of over a million dollars in every fiscal year between now and whenever the mess started - oh, say, around six, seven years ago - from any of those corporations or public entities who are now in need of taxpayer dollars, and who obviously thought that these policies and decisions would be Good Ideas - to give the money back. just return it, with interest of course, and i'd even say they could keep whatever ill-gotten gain they've managed to make of it, since presumably they had to pay taxes on it.

i have a sneaking suspicion that if that amount wouldn't net 700 billion dollars, i bet it would come damn close.

it seems to me that this would only be fair. let the people who made the bad choices and the bad decisions that turned out to be So Wrong the world is on the brink of financial collapse pay the bill for being Wrong. they were the people who profited.

and after all, isn't taking responsiblity for Bad Ideas and Wrong Decisions supposed to be part of the American Way?

and now a word from the far Right...

2008-09-23T07:00:00.003-04:00

Sarah Palin: the most underqualified vice-president ever?
by Andrew Sullivan

For the past two weeks serious commentators and columnists have been asked to take the candidacy of Sarah Palin for the vice-presidency of the United States seriously.

Formerly sane people have written of the McCain campaign’s selection of this running mate as if it represents a new face for Republicanism, an emblem of can-do western spirit, a brilliant ploy to win over Clinton voters, a new feminism, a reformist revolution, and a genius appeal to the religious right.

I’m afraid I cannot join in. In fact I cannot say anything about this candidacy that takes it in any way seriously. It is a farce. It is absurd. It is an insult to all intelligent people. It is a sign of a candidate who has lost his mind. There is no way to take the nomination of Palin to be vice-president of the world’s sole superpower - except to treat it as a massive, unforgivable, inexplicable decision by someone who has either gone insane or is managerially unfit to be president of the United States. When, at some point, the hysteria dies down, even her supporters will realise that, by this decision, McCain has rendered himself unfit to run a branch of Starbucks, let alone the White House.
Isn’t she doing well in the polls? Hasn’t she rattled the Obama campaign? Yes, she is. And yes, she has, a little. But review the extraordinary facts on the table about this woman and you will see how ephemeral this will soon turn out to be.

The announcement of Palin was made more than two weeks ago. It took a fortnight for her to agree to sit down for an intimate interview of the kind usually reserved for Hollywood stars instead of the press conference typical of a new vice-presidential candidate. This has never happened in American political history. Even Dan Quayle, the least qualified vice-presidential nominee before Palin, and a man who did not know how to spell “potato”, gave a press conference a day after the convention in 1988.

There have been two explanations for this astonishing Putin-style decision to keep a vice-presidential candidate from the press. The first was that the press would be too mean to her and needed to show, in campaign manager Rick Davis’s word, sufficient “deference” before they would be allowed to ask her a question. Deference? Is 21st-century America an 18th-century monarchy? The press owes such a total unknown who could be president next January deference?
The second explanation is that she needed time to cram for the exam. The McCain camp knew she had never expressed any views about foreign policy. And the only time she had on record was to oppose the surge that is the centrepiece of McCain’s campaign. They knew she knew nothing and was utterly unqualified to be president at a moment’s notice. And so she spent the last week furiously prepping. As Maureen Dowd noticed, she is Eliza Doolittle to John McCain’s Henry Higgins.

But at the end of last week we were granted an audience with the Princess of Alaska. It was painful. She had no idea what the Bush Doctrine was – the central and most controversial foreign policy innovation of the past eight years: the doctrine of preemption against states with WMDs. Moreover, in her speech the same day, she described the war in Iraq. She said her eldest son, who has just enlisted, would “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans”.
Does Palin believe that the men who planned and carried out the 9/11 attack are in Iraq? The hijackers are all dead, but Bin Laden and Zawahiri and the rest of the gang are, as far as we know, in Pakistan. Nobody believes they are in Iraq.

Then we have the now mountain of lies that follow Palin everywhere she goes, lies she keeps repeating as if they are not subject to factual scrutiny. In her first interview she said it was common for vice-presidential candidates never to have met a single foreign leader. Untrue. Every living vice-presidential candidate has met some foreign leaders before being picked.

She said she did not deny that climate change was man-made. But she has clearly stated that on the record. A year ago she said: “I’m not an Al Gore, doom-and-gloom environmentalist, blaming the changes in our climate on human activity.”

She keeps repeating as a defining political motif that she said: “Thanks, but no thanks for the Bridge to Nowhere.” But we now know that she originally lobbied for the bridge in Alaska paid for by federal funds. And she never returned the money. And she even wore a “Nowhere, Alaska” sweatshirt to push back against the McCains of this world who derided the bridge as a pointless boondoggle.

She says she’s against pork-barrel spending, and this was partly why McCain picked her. McCain’s signature issue, after all, is his disdain of pork. Here’s one of McCain’s oldest jokes: “We’re not going to spend $3m of your tax dollars to study the DNA of bears in Montana,” he said earlier this year, citing Montana’s request for federal money to study the endangered grizzly bear. “I don’t know if it was a paternity issue or criminal, but it was a waste of money.”

Here’s what Politico.com revealed about Palin’s time as Alaska governor: “According to a ‘summary of requests for federal appropriations’ posted to her budget office’s website earlier this year, Palin requested millions of federal dollars for everything from improving recreational halibut fishing to studying the mating habits of crabs and the DNA of harbour seals.”

She boasts that she secured a new oil pipeline for Alaska, but closer inspection finds that nothing has even begun to be built, and that the state may end up owing billions if the pipeline is never constructed.
She says she’s a fiscal conservative, but as mayor she increased her tiny town’s debt service by 69%. When she took office, the town of Wasilla had no long-term debt. By the time her term was over, the debt amounted to $3,000 per citizen.

She is the biggest joke to be put on a ticket in national politics. The most accurate thing said about her in the past two weeks was said on the day she was picked. It was said by Alaska’s Republican state senate president, Lyda Green: “She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice-president or president? Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?”

Andrew Sullivan is a noted conservative/liberatarian commentator. this article, and the one i posted yesterday, were both passed on to me by my beloved little sister, Sheila, who was paying attention to this stuff long before i was.

this is your nation on white privilege... by tim wise

2008-09-22T20:07:00.001-04:00

This is Your Nation on White Privilege by Tim Wise

9/13/08

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help. White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug. White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals. White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a ember of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto is "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the fact that she lives close to Russia--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because suddenly your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second do look." White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to get to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still be viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is unquestionable, and whose "next door neighbor" qualities make her ready to be VP, while if you're a black candidate for president and you let your children be interviewed for a few seconds on TV, you're irresponsibly exploiting them.

White privilege is being able to give a 36 minute speech in which you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he would do if elected. White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced. White privilege is being able to go to a prestigious prep school, then to Yale and then Harvard Business school, and yet, still be seen as just an average guy (George W. Bush) while being black, going to a prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then to Harvard Law, makes you "uppity," and a snob who probably looks down on regular folks. White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.) and that's OK, and you're cut out to be president, but if you're black and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can't be trusted to make good decisions in office.

White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she's disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're black and married for nearly twenty years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called "terrorist fist bumps." White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you "dangerously naive and immature."

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the "lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain. White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S., and has been called, "One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation," by best-selling author and professor Michael Eric Dyson, of Georgetown University. Wise has spoken in 48 states, and on over 400 college campuses, including Harvard, Stanford, and the Law Schools at Yale and Columbia, and has spoken to community groups around the nation.

pass it along.

be a part of something positive....

2008-09-18T11:41:00.003-04:00

a blogging friend of mine (p.a. gibbons of EAT MAN DRINK WATER)posted a GREAT IDEA on her blog that i just HAD to pass along.

instead of all the ranting and raving and hating and fearing we all - myself the cranky crone included - have been indulging in since She Who Should Not Be Named's nomination, perhaps it's time we took some positive steps.

so here's one idea. send in a donation to planned parenthood - in sarah palin's honor.

here's the information as i pulled it off of patti's blog:

Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website:

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor

You'll need to fill in the address to let Planned Parenthood know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. And some are suggesting you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:

McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street, 1st floor
Arlington, VA 22202

p.s. In order for the card to arrive, make sure you use the link above or choose the pull down of "Donate" (and then "Honorary or Memorial Donations"), not the regular "Donate Online" pulldown.

as patti says, i don't know if it will work or not, but i'm sure planned parenthood can use the money. and maybe She Who Should Not Be Named will get the Message.

the end of the world...

2008-09-17T17:57:00.004-04:00

as we know it.

yesterday, i happened to be in my chiropractor's office, paying for my deductible with a visa, when the credit card machine suddenly went into some sort of a fit and wouldn't allow the transaction to go through.

as she tried the second time, i laughed and said, oh my, it's nearly four o'clock - perhaps the entire financial system is collapsing and credit cards are never going to work again.

the receptionist, a wise older lady named faith, peered at me over her spectacles and said, that really isn't funny.

and no, gentle readers, it really isn't.

even Beloved sounds grim.

it seems to me (though people call me crazy more often than cranky) that we should all be giving some serious thought to what an alternative form of economy might look like. if we have a chance to wipe the slate clean and start all over again, maybe we need to understand this as the opportunity it could be. i don't know what the answer is but it seems to me that the first step is to imagine other possibilities.* as in, let's stop trying to fool ourselves into believing this is the best healthcare/political/economic/legal system there is. let's admit it's fucked up. let's admit our priorities are fucked up, our values are upside down and inside out, that what's driving us is killing us. the god we're all supposed to trust in is a god of greed - one of those false prophets jesus actually warned us all about.

i think the founding fathers did a great job getting the ball rolling. i think they gave us a great start. but i think it's time we did better.

* genevieve vaughn is a feminist scholar who writes on the "gift economy" where what is valued most highly isn't capital, but gifts.

proud to be a WASP*

2008-09-14T14:00:00.002-04:00

maybe there's hope.

i just don't understand how ANY woman of ANY age could be FOR sarah palin.

on the hopeful side, apparently the Alaskan Women Who Reject Sarah Palin have held the biggest rally in the history of the STATE.

*WASP - woman against sarah palin. who wants to make the t-shirt?

tempest in a teapot

2008-09-09T04:33:00.004-04:00

i received an email from vicki yesterday, apologizing for sending out something that seems to have been proven "false." apparently the list attached to the letter is not a list of books that palin requested to have removed from the library, only a list of the books that have been attempted to be removed by zealots like her.

on cafemom, the firestorm continues to rage. how could i be so irresponsible, they ask, don't i check my sources?

well, no. i'm not a reporter OR a politician. i'm not under any particular geas to speak The Truth. I'm here to speak MY truth. and if you don't like it, and you don't agree with it, or if you think there's some other sort of truth Out There, go find it.

if half the vitriol being wasted on me had been aimed at the people who told us the lies that convinced us all it was a Good Idea to go to "war" in iraq, the army would still be polishing its boots.

however, the FACT remains that palin DID ask the librarian about removing books. the FACT is that the list IS a list of books frequently targeted for removal. the FACT is that palin is a member of an extremely fundamentalist church, the kind of church that believes that the fewer books one reads outside the bible, and the less one questions or challenges that bible, the better off one is. if NOT books on the list, just what was palin asking about? old phonebooks?

somehow, i don't think so.

here's a quote that HAS been confirmed, written by anne kilkenny:

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

so i've decided to allow the post to remain - until palin herself explains exactly what she was thinking when she asked the librarian about removing books from the shelves of the public library.

assuming, of course, she gives a believable answer.

and now a word courtesy of vicki noble

2008-09-07T21:25:00.002-04:00

for those gentle readers who are not familiar with the work of vicki noble, she is writer, a scholar and deeply spiritual feminist warrior, among many, many other things. she is also the co-author of the motherpeace tarot deck. she was kind enough to forward me this information, and i am posting it here so that EVERYONE may see exactly what this monstrous masculated woman wrapped up in a barbie suit would bring down on us all:

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.
Sinclair Lewis, 1935

Below is a list of the books Sarah Palin tried to have banned from the Wasilla, Alaska Library. When I was in Anchorage two years ago, residents of Wasilla I met described the place as a growing, more-and-more suburban community north of Anchorage. In her speech, Palin called the area "the valley." Mayor Palin would seem to be a strong force in the suburbanization of the village of Wasilla. When the Wasilla librarian refused to trash these books, Mayor Palin tried to have her fired. This caused a stir in Wasilla which then turned into a drive to protect the librarian. Some of my favorite examples of American literature are on this list. This is the act of a patriotic American? No, this is the act of a religious fundamentalist trying to squeeze herself into the role of a mythic frontier American. The attempt to ban American literary masterpieces like Catcher In The Rye, Grapes Of Wrath, To Kill A Mockingbird, Death Of A Salesman, Leaves Of Grass, As I Lay Dying, Huckleberry Finn, Catch 22 and Tarzan indicates, flags and Bible citations aside, her ascendance to national power would be downright un-American. In the realm of Rovian political marketing and the unfolding effort to win the Presidency not with ideas but with a cult of personality, McCain is the humiliated warrior ready to "go to the gates of hell" to preserve American exceptionalism and Sarah Palin is his fascist "bride," a mythic frontier mom able to shoot, gut and cook a moose while nurturing her family who has said publicly our war in Iraq is supported by God and people should pray to God to get the Alaska gas pipeline approved.

This is a pivotal moment in American history, and we all need to expose this cult of personality for what it is, a cynical sham. Please pass this on far and wide.

John Grant

This list is taken from the official minutes of the Wasilla Library Board.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
Have to Go by Robert Munsch
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Impressions edited by Jack Booth
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
It's Okay if You Don't Love Me by Norma Klein
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Little Red Riding Hood by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Love is One of the Choices by Norma Klein
Lysistrata by Aristophanes
More Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
My House by Nikki Giovanni
My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara
Night Chills by Dean Koontz
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Collective
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl
Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones by Alvin Schwartz
Scary Stories in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Separate Peace by John Knowles
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Bastard by John Jakes
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Devil's Alternative by Frederick Forsyth
The Figure in the Shadows by John Bellairs
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Snyder
The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks
The Living Bible by William C. Bower
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The New Teenage Body Book by Kathy McCoy and Charles Wibbelsman
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Seduction of Peter S. by Lawrence Sanders
The Shining by Stephen King
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Snyder
Then Again, Maybe I Won't by Judy Blume
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary by the Merriam-Webster Editorial Staff
Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts: The Story of the Halloween
Symbols by Edna Barth

VFP31 Annual Banquet Speaker Chris Hedges wrote the book on people like Sarah Palin.
It's called American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America

don't just take my word for it...

2008-09-06T16:02:00.002-04:00

sarah palin is probably the worst choice for vice-president in the nation. and i don't say that because i think she's a traitor to her sex. i say that 'cause people who've known her all her life say that.

you can read it all here...

The Truth About Sarah Palin

all that is required for evil to exist is for good people to do nothing.

on creationism, or why we don't fix engines in home-ec

2008-09-05T12:04:00.006-04:00

"Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject -- creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides."
Sarah Palin, Anchorage Daily News, on creationism

sarah palin is the daughter of a SCIENCE teacher?

shoot me now.

i can't imagine what kind of SCIENCE condones the teaching of creationism. creationism, in case any of my gentle readers have been hibernating, is the belief that God created the universe... JUST THE WAY IT SAYS HE DID IN THE BIBLE.

that's right... six days, light out of dark, animals, plants, planets, and people. in case anyone was wondering, this was one of the things the Voice used to assure me wasn't literally true.

now, i am perfectly willing to believe that perhaps sarah palin is one of those people who doesn't hear her Angels. (actually i think it's obvious she isn't.)

but i didn't need an Angel to tell ME that the story in the Bible - (and actually, there are TWO creation stories in genesis, one right after the other - so i'm not sure which story she's advocating they teach in school since the two stories contradict each other) - is a myth.

suggesting that the concept of evolution and the concept of creationism form sides of any debate is tantamount to admitting in public that ms palin and others of her kind don't know the difference between Santa Claus and MasterCard.

don't get me wrong. i'm all for teaching creationism in schools, right along with all the other wonderful creation stories of all the other mythologies from around the world. this is what the educated among us call "Comparitive Religons" or maybe "Mythology."

but we don't call it SCIENCE, any more than we call fixing a broken engine cooking.

deliver me from hockey moms

2008-09-04T07:59:00.009-04:00

so sarah palin is just a hockey mom?

cool. another reason i don't want to vote for her and elmer.

"hockey" parents of all sexes and sports are the reason i never encouraged my kids to participate in team sports and if they did, i made sure i absented myself in a large way.

why this aversion?

it started innocently enough, as things often do, one rainy november afternoon when i happened to find myself sitting in the upstairs balcony of the local YMCA nursing my four month old baby, meg. katie was at swim practice downstairs, the weather wasn't nice and meg needed to eat. so we decamped to the bleachers above the pool and the two of us settled down for a nice, peaceful suck.

imagine my consternation when the lady sitting six feet away from me started to scream at her kid over the railing.

i don't know how many Gentle Readers have known the milky bliss of a nursing baby, but it's a pretty serious haze. snuggled with my baby, it took a lot to penetrate the hormonal and sleep-deprived fog. i raised my head when she got too loud to ignore. i stared at her in disbelief as she got to her feet. i took the baby off my breast and proceeded to burp her while the woman yelled even more loudly:

WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING BOBBY! REMEMBER YOUR ARMS! NO, NOT THAT WAY - THE OTHER WAY - NO NOT THAT OTHER WAY - PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

finally, meg let out a large burp and the woman paused for air.

why don't you let the coach do his job? i asked rather mildly. i was, after all, soaked with milk, both inside and out.

EXCUSE ME? she said, turning to me with both eyes blazing.

i said, why don't you let the coach do his job? i repeated. i pulled up my blouse, pulled down my bra and let meg latch on.

WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME? she asked.

i said, why don't you let the coach do his job? i repeated, this time in the same tone of voice i used to use when my children were young and i had to explain to them the necessity of doing whatever it was i wanted them to do, whether or not they understood the reason why.

WHAT? she asked again. her face got all flushed and her eyes bugged out. i remember they were blue and her sweater was peach and the more she flushed, the more she turned the same color as her sweater.

you're being disruptive, i said. you can't possibly believe you're doing anything but mortifying your son, and you're interfering the coach's ability to coach. you're also interfering with MY daughter's practice and the practice of every other kid down there. so why don't you go find something better to do with this time then get your blood pressure all raised?

I THINK I KNOW HOW TO HANDLE MY SON, she said with bugged eyes and clenched teeth.

i sincerely doubt that, i answered. and you certainly don't know how to handle anyone else's since you don't know when to keep quiet and let the coach do his job.

she almost lunged at me then, but meg started to fuss and i had to burp her. in mid-grasp, she turned and disappeared down the steps and meg let out an enormous burp and a huge fart at the same time.

i decided at that moment i couldn't always rely on meg to have the last word and thus resolved to keep my distance before some sports-and-achievement-crazed parent answered me with a gun, or worse, turned into one myself.

palin herself admits the only difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull is the lipstick. i guess she thinks that's funny.

i think she should be ashamed of herself for insulting pitbulls.

cheap tricks

2008-09-02T06:48:00.007-04:00

From alternet.org:

It would be cheap to trade on the irony that a firm backer of abstinence-only sex ed is now the mother of a pregnant teen. But it does need to be noted that many pregnant teens do not have the financial and emotional supports that Bristol appears lucky to have. Palin's abstinence-only stance on sex ed, like McCain's, is wrong because it puts everyone's kids in danger.

palin's abstinence only stance isn't wrong because it puts everyone's kids in danger. palin's absintence stance is wrong because it's stupid. i might be well on the way to becoming an exceedingly Cranky Crone, but i was once a very happy and Freewheeling Maiden. very Freewheeling.

expecting teens in the throes of that first great hormonal rush to pretend they aren't is silly. expecting teens to sublimate those urges using the clubs of guilt, shame and sin is stupid. especially in the days of birth control - no, it's not 100%effective, but we also live in the days of Choice, don't we? the emerging sexuality of young women should be encouraged and celebrated in the same way we encourage and celebrate the emerging sexuality of young men.

i can't tell you how many so-called "feminists" i know who turn suddenly squeamish when they start talking about a prepubescent daughter's sexuality. it turns my stomach. sex is fun. sex is amazing. sex should be encouraged. people who have lots of sex (the ones who WANT to have a lot of sex, that is) tend to be much less cranky than the ones who don't. young women should be taught not only how to protect themselves - and the absolute requisite for doing so - but how to enjoy their bodies, so that they can learn how to achieve the same pleasures without intercourse.

since i am the mother of four young women - only one of whom is still a teen, and none of whom have been pregnant except the one who wanted to be (and then she was married! imagine that) and never once resorted to guilt, shame or threats of Eternal Damnation to prevent such from happening, i feel particularly qualified to speak on this issue.

maybe the obama campaign thinks we should leave gov palin's abysmal parenting choices out of the discussion but i don't. not only has gov palin practically assured that her OLDEST daughter (the one who sets the standard) would fall pregnant with her biblical-based beliefs, but she intends to shackle the poor child into marriage. at 17.

i don't know about your 17 year olds, gentle readers, but mine weren't ready for marriage. none of them. even MY oldest daughter, who is, if i dare say it, a poster child for how to do a Good Job as a Parent if ever there were one.

if one of my girls came home and told me a - she was pregnant, and b - she wanted to keep the child, i'd support her decision. i'd also encourage her to consider aborting the child, especially if she was well within the first trimester. (i believe all women should be taught in the uses of herbal abortificants, so that they themselves can alleviate a potential pregnancy as early as possible.) but i wouldn't make her get married. not at 17. not even at 20 which was the mistake i made. (my mother says she told me i didn't have to marry my ex. i don't remember that conversation.) i'd help my daughter raise her baby. i WOULD expect the father to provide support as ordered by a Court. i would not throw her out, castigate her, or punish her. nor would i allow her child to become a living symbol of any sort of "sin," as it appears gov palin's grandchild is about to become.

my mother carried that blight. her birth meant that my grandmother was unable to have be given an annulment by the catholic church, which meant that even though my grandfather abandoned them both, my grandmother was forever afterwards branded "divorced" by the Church she revered so much, my mother breathing evidence of all that she had lost.

of course gov palin should be free to make as many mistakes in her personal life as she wishes. if she intends to burden her daughter and grandchild with the weight of her own hypocrisy, that is certainly her Right. if she wants to stand up in public and try to justify her appallingly poor parenting beliefs and choices, that's her right, too, i guess.

but for sweet good goddess's sake, gentle readers, let's not put someone who views her own grandchild as a Scarlet Letter in any place of real power.

* i noticed in editing this piece that in several places i referred to palin as senator. as i was correcting myself, i realized that in her name, i hear a distance resonance with the name of the senator in star wars who betrays the republic and becomes the emperor.

in the interests of what is Fair

2008-08-31T05:49:00.003-04:00

From a Gentle Reader:

Hey Annie - I was checking this out and I cant help but ask, all your sources are moveon.com. Isn;t that a democratic-party based thing? I wonder if he republicans have a different side. I don't know myself, and I don;t know who I'll vote for yet, but I thought it was interesting all your sources were one site. What are other sites saying? The little bit I've paid attention, I try to listen to both sides and then I get overwhelmed. (emphasis mine)

well, actually, one's a letter that was passed to me through a yahoo-group i belong to, and the other piece actually came from alternet.org - which is a bit more radically liberal than democratic, at least it seems that way to me. or maybe those are just the bits i like to read.

but to answer this gentle reader's last sentence - emphasis mine - ah, gentle reader, there's the rub. there's so much noise out there, hoping to confuse you, because, after all, you're supposed to be FAIR. bullshit, i say.

here's why i don't pay attention to the republicans. for one thing, i used to be one, so i know exactly what they are saying and how they are saying it. i know exactly how republicans - especially conservative republicans think - and i know what they tell themselves and what they believe. if there's any remote possibility that i might forget, i have but to call my mother, the Mater Maxima, and ask her her opinion. since i was raised not to come home dinner on election day unless i voted straight republican, i don't have to listen very long.

but after years of supporting the so-called GOP, i have reached the conclusion that republicans are either in the pockets of the corporate-military-industrial complex that really controls the world, or are misguided, well-meaning but basically blind, and don't realize how they are being used.

therefore, i don't have much time for what the republicans have to say or think any more. if they happen to say something i agree with, i am pleasantly surprised. but lest my gentle readers think i've merely switched party affiliations, i don't have too much time for democrats either - i think most of them are in the same pockets as the republicans. look at leiberman, and the ease with which he slithered from one side of the aisle to another.

it is the system itself that's poisoning us, the ideologies and outworn creeds we are attempting to hold in place. the american way of government, as well as it may have served us, is really nothing more than the ideas of a group of 17th and 18th century minded men who were less well-educated than i am, whose knowledge of the world and the way things really work was as limited in many ways as the romans. their ideas about capitalism did not include corporations as we know them today and adam smith's wealth of nations is not based on corporate bodies such as they exist today.

so while we may have replaced kings and queens and dukes and counts with elected officials, corporations are organized along the same hierarchical power paths as feudalistic monarchies, and behave the very same way. it is not the State we have to fear, nor the head of it, but the global, mega-corporations, the ones whose interests, as my brother john noted sadly about the company he works for, "are diametrically opposed to those of our customers," and which rapidly have become the medium for a new kind of empire-building, global conquest and control.

at this point, i'm neither republican nor democrat. what i am is disgusted and appalled at the way we allow each other to treat each other. if the democrats are saying what i agree with, im going to quote democrats. see, i don't care whether or not i'm FAIR.

i know i'm RIGHT.

who is sarah palin, part 2

2008-08-30T16:54:00.002-04:00

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:

She was elected Alaska 's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1

Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2

She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3

Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4

She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5

She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7

Sources:

1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-6664935-uHzHDQx&t=1

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-6664935-uHzHDQx&t=2

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-6664935-uHzHDQx&t=3

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-6664935-uHzHDQx&t=4

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-6664935-uHzHDQx&t=5

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-6664935-uHzHDQx&t=6

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-6664935-uHzHDQx&t=7

7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-6664935-uHzHDQx&t=8

who is sarah palin?

2008-08-30T10:38:00.001-04:00

from a friend of a friend of a friend...

Dear classmates - As an Alaskan, I am writing to give all of you some information on Sarah Palin, Senator McCain's choice for VP. As an Alaska voter, I know more than most of you about her and, frankly, I am horrified that he picked her.

The most accurate description of her is red neck. Her husband works in the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay and races snow mobiles. She is a life time member of the NRA and has worked tirelessly to allow indiscriminate hunting of wildlife in Alaska, particularly wolves and bears. She has spent millions of Alaska state dollars on aerial hunting of these predators from helicopters and airplanes, dollars that should have been spent, for example, on Alaska's failing school system.We have the lowest rate of high school graduation in the country. Not all of you may think aerial predator hunting is so bad, but how anyone (other than Alaska wolf-haters, of which there are many, most without teeth), could think this use of funds is appropriate is beyond me. If you want to know more about the aerial hunting travesty, let me know and I will send some links to informative web sites.

She has been a strong supporter of increased use of fossil fuels, yet the McCain campaign has the nerve to say she has "green" policies. The only thing green about Sarah Palin is her lack of experience. She has consistently supported drilling in ANWR, use of coal-burning power plants (as I write this, a new coal plant is being built in her home town of Wasilla), strip mining, and almost anything else that will unnecessarily exploit the diminishing resources of Alaska and destroy its environment.

Prior to her one year as governor of Alaska, she was mayor of Wasilla, a small red neck town outside Anchorage.The average maximum education level of parents of junior high school kids in Wasilla is 10th grade. Unfortunately, I have to go to Wasilla every week to get groceries and other supplies, so I have continual contact with the people who put Palin in office in the first place. I know what I'm talking about. These people don't have a concept of the world around them or of the serious issues facing the US. Furthermore, they don't care. So long as they can go out and hunt their moose every fall, kill wolves and bears and drive their snow mobiles and ATVs through every corner of the wilderness, they're happy.

I wish I were exaggerating. Sarah Palin is currently involved in a political corruption scandal. She fired an individual in law enforcement here because she didn't like how he treated one of her relatives during a divorce. The man's performance and ability weren't considered; it was a totally personal firing and is currently under investigation. While the issue isn't close to the scandal of Ted Steven's corruption, it shows that Palin isn't "squeaky clean" and causes me to think there ay be more issues that could come to light.

Clearly McCain doesn't care. When you line Palin up with Biden, the comparison would be laughable if it weren't so serious. Sarah Palin knows nothing of economics (admittedly a weak area for McCain), or of international affairs, knows nothing of national government, Social Security, unemployment, health care systems - you name it. The idea of her meeting with heads of foreign governments around the world truly frightens me. In an increasingly dangerous world, with the economy in shambles in the US, Sarah Palin is uniquely UNqualified to be vice president. John McCain is not a young man. Should something happen to him such that the vice president had to step in, it would destroy our country and possibly the world to have someone as inexperienced and inappropriate as Sarah Palin.

The choice of Palin is a cheap shot by McCain to try to get Hillary supporters to vote for him. when McCain introduced her today, Palin had the nerve to compare herself with Hillary and Geraldine Ferraro. Sarah Palin, you are no Hillary Clinton. To those of you who, like me, supported Hilary and were upset that she did not get the nomination, please don't think that Sarah Palin is a worthy substitute. If you supported Hillary, regardless of what you think the media and the democratic party may have done to undermine her campaign, the person to support now is Obama, not Sarah Palin. To those of you who are independent or undecided, don't let the choice of Palin sway you in favor of McCain.

Choosing her shows how unqualified McCain is to be president. To those of you who are conservative, I guess you have no choice for president. But please try to see how the poor choice of Palin tells us a great deal about McCain's judgment. While the political posturing inherent in the choice of Palin is obvious, the more serious issue is the fact that the VP is, literally, a heartbeat away from the presidency. Sarah Palin is totally and unequivocally unqualified to be vice president, let alone president. I know this is a lengthy and emotional email, but the stakes are high. I thought it might help for all of you, regardless of political affiliation, to know something about Palin from someone who has to live with her administration in Alaska on a daily basis.

- Jackie S

'nuff said.

only what's obvious

2008-08-29T06:42:00.003-04:00

according to steven reinberg, as he reports this morning in HealthDay News:

Many new mothers in the United States struggle with chronic emotional and physical problems, often with little or no support from their husbands or partners, all the while trying to meet the needs of their newborns, and in some cases the pressure to return to work, a new report finds.

well, no shit, sherlock. personally i find it repugnant this should be news to ANYONE.

i know women who've gone back to work when their babies are only 6 weeks old. never mind what affect something like that has on a baby - what about the MOTHER?

six weeks postpartum, a woman is still physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted from the effects of labor and delivery, let alone any childcare or babytending she's had to do in the meanwhile. many women are still bleeding, even if only sporadically or lightly.

expecting a woman to go back to full time or even part time "work" is like expecting a male organ transplantee to be back on his job at six weeks postsurgery. we don't expect that, do we? of course not - the poor guy's had major surgery - he's had organs traded around in his body. of course he needs his rest and his pills and whatever else.

well guess what, gentle readers... so has a new mommy.

never mind the baby - the placenta is the size of two livers. just the shock of labor, the birth AND of that remarkable organ severing itself from the body and its associated blood loss should be enough for our culture to mandate at least a six week REST for the new mother. but do we?

nooooo... we've created such an abysmally poor economy MOST young women - at least the ones i know - don't have the luxury of the choice to stay home and recover. it really isn't a question of who's taking care of the babies, it's who's taking care of the MOTHERS?

and as far as i can tell... no one.

cry me a river and build me a bridge

2008-08-27T18:27:00.003-04:00

i love the new york times. whenever im feeling particularly mellow, peaceful or even downright meditative, a glimpse through their online edition never ceases to kick my blood pressure up a notch.

or maybe i just had too good a day with baby jake.

this evening, even maureen dowd made my eyes cross. i'm usually a HUGE maureen dowd fan - i'd give up men for maureen dowd - but i thought her harangue about tension between obama and hilary could only contribute to the Bad Feeling between their camps.

of course if i were hillary, i'd be pissed as shit, too, especially over the biden choice, but i guess that's the way politics is played. i don't pretend to understand how a person who garnered over 18 million votes can possibly be less of an asset than someone who's never garnered more than six thousand, but then i find talking to dead people easier than listening to a live politician.

then i read the editoral titled "Nasty Political Hate Ads" or something like that - and i found it was actually a diatribe against madonna's latest video. this one made me scratch my head. since when does a music video constitute political advertising? excuse me, Mister August Editor, Sir - but um... when an artist chooses to express an opinon in a work of Art - a label for which YOU may feel that madonna's latest video does not qualify - but just because she lumps elmer fudd and howdy doody - oops i meant - george w and hero mccain (HAHA ty patrice for that one) - in with despots like hitler... still... isn't that just her opinion?

i guess that unlike the judge on obscenity, i don't know political advertising when i see it.

Evolutionary War

2008-08-26T12:13:00.004-04:00

those pesky biblical literalists are at it again. i'd find it funny if i didn't find it so troubling. a new york times article in today's paper - a teacher on the front lines of faith and science - describes one science teacher's struggle in florida to teach the idea of evolution to a group of students who are hellbent (pardon my pun) on refusing to even consider such a dastardly, heretical, anti-biblical notion.

the students are stoked on by pastors, parents, and organizations that purport to teach that the bible is the Irrefutable Word of God, that everything in the bible HAS to be LITERALLY true, and that if you don't believe such idiotic pap, you are going to hell. forever. end of conversation.

i aint descended from no ape, declared one earnest believer of a boy, thus demonstrating the ignorant blockheadedness frequently mislabeled ardent faith by the biblical literalists.

and after reading more about this young man, and his peers, and his parents and his pastors and his before-school prayer group, i think apes would be equally appalled were such a misguided understanding of evolution true.

why i couldn't possibly vote for mccain

2008-08-25T06:43:00.004-04:00

when aol asked its members the question that was on everyone's mind... if obama is paris hilton, who is john mccain? the response was overwhelmingly: ELMER FUDD.

alas, so accurate.

mccain not only resembles fudd, he sounds a lot like him, especially when he starts branding his "war record."

what's so heroic about being taken prisoner? any fool can get himself captured. i'd be FAR more impressed by mccain's war record, or lack thereof, if he'd been captured and ESCAPED.

but no, mccain's claim to heroism is that he endured conditions not worse than what anyone else in the third world or camp gitmo currently endure and have endured for centuries. (and he's endured long enough to have a barbie wife and six or seven houses. maybe it's not that he's stupid on national television, he just can't decide if the pink plastic ones count.) and speaking of the third world, since mccain is such an evangelica kinda candidate, jesus said the poor would be with us always. mccain and his cronies are certainly making sure jesus continues to be right.

the other thing i find deeply troubling about mccain's so-called heroism is that it exposes him as someone who doesn't have the sense to save himself. when offered an early release because of his Big Daddy, mccain - or should i say elmer - refused. he opted to "stay with his men."

everyone knows the Hero is supposed to go off and find help even it means sacrificing some of the Little Guys. (that's why the Little Guys are there.) one of the most memorable scenes for me in recent movies, was the one in Last of the Mohicans when Daniel Day-Lewis (i mean hawkeye) is forced to abandon his Beloved to a war party of natives. "i will find you," he promises, just before he takes off for help and she falls into the hands of the enemies. (and of course, it being Hollywood, he did.)

this wasn't hollywood, which makes it all the worse for mccain in my opinion. you can't take care of anyone until you take care of yourself, opined my very wise daddy once upon a time, during the darkest days of my life, and those words have been a bedrock upon which i have constructed a most fulfilling life. so here we have a candidate for president who not only didn't do anything in the least heroic, he didn't have the sense to come home when he could've. so he could've gone back, and been a Real Hero.

but no. mccain's sense of loyalties are apparently so cartoonishly misplaced, i don't think we can trust him to know when to come in out of the rain. how can we trust this man to lead us anywhere, if he doesn't know when its appropriate to save his own skin?

welcome, gentle readers

2008-08-24T14:55:00.004-04:00

this is where i promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth... at least as i see it. leave me a comment if you agree with something i say, or, better yet, leave me one if you don't.

what sparked this leap into ire?

as i've said other places...

just when i thought it was safe to pay attention to politics, the democrats give me reason to despair.

obama picked biden?

biden? biden as in joe biden the plagarist from delaware?

i guess i will have to console myself by remembering we've had satan incarnate as the veep for the last 8 years.... and plagarism isn't even one of the seven deadly sins.

i guess you might say washington is coming up.